Trial By Fire
by RooftopsAndInvitations
Summary: Kaiden Trent is on a hunt with her father when her life changes forever. Childhood friends, Dean and Sam Winchester come back into the picture. What happens when Kaiden reunites with the long time friends and finds love in unexpected places?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay everyone. This is my first attempt at a Fic. So be gentle...Please!...any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated...thanks!  
Peace 

Ever since I was little I knew I was a freak. I never fit in or had any friends, but that might have been because of the fact that my father was a drunk and it was a well-known fact. But it also could have been because I was always talking about hunting supernatural things like ghosts and demons in front of my classmates.

You see, my dad might have never been around for me, but he was a damned good hunter. Yes I do realize how insane I would sound to someone who doesn't believe in that kind of stuff, but let me tell you, if you don't and something comes after you, it's your own damned fault.

Well enough of that unstoppable compassion, this is my story. My name is Kaiden Trent, yes I realize that it is a strange name, but it fits since as I have previously stated, I'm not the most normal person in the world. Anyways, I'm about five-four with long blonde hair that falls about to my waist and emerald green eyes that most people find creepy. So this story of action, passion, bickering and a large amount of complaining started two years ago.

So you see I was on a hunting trip with my father, we were looking for a werewolf, you know a person that turns into a slobbering, drooling, vicious creature every full moon? Yea it's the real deal, I would rather take on a spirit or a demon any day, at least if you get caught by one of them you will most likely be killed, but if you get bit by a werewolf, you become one of them, which, in my opinion, is worse than dying.

As I was saying, we were on this hunt, in the forest, in the middle of the night. I rarely get nervous but there was some deep-down feeling in my gut, I knew something was going to happen, something bad. It was strange that I ignored my instincts because my instincts were pretty good, actually they were dead on most of the time. For about two years I have been getting these visions, they let me see people in danger before they actually are and then me and my dad go and save them, that's the way it has been working anyways. Well this one night I ignored my super amazing intuition and would regret it for the rest of my life.

I turned to look at my dad who was standing a few feet behind me looking into the blackness of the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of what we were looking for. I heard the crack of a twig

"Dad," I whispered, "did you hear that?"

Just then I heard a growl behind me, I turned around and was met with a drooling, hairy beast standing in front of me. I just stood there watching the creature advance towards me; even as it lunged for me I couldn't move.

"Kaiden!" I heard my dad scream, and then I was falling to the ground, I whipped my head around to see what was going out, and my dad had shoved me out of the way, and had been thrown down by the werewolf.

The beast was looming over my father, and before I could do anything, it had taken a massive bite out of his leg,

"Daddy!" I screamed, my eyes came unfocused and swam with tears, but there was nothing I could do, I couldn't move, couldn't think, all I could hear was screaming and yelling and then the noise of a shotgun being fired and I could hear my dad talking, but he wasn't talking to me.

"Do it!" he yelled, "I don't want my daughter to have to do it, but I don't want to become one of them!"

I forced my eyes to focus and three figures came into focus, my dad was on the ground, with two people standing over him, I assumed they were both men from their outline. There was one about six-five and another around six-one or six-two.

"D-d-daddy?" my voice sounded shaky and high pitched even in my own ears, I started towards him, crawling, because my feet wouldn't seem to work. "Dad, you're okay right? What did you want these guys to do? Who are these people?"

The shorter of the two men took a step towards me and I could see his face better and recognized him as my childhood friend Dean Winchester, he was about six-one with sandy blonde hair and green eyes that made pretty much every girl swoon. He had been a ladies man from the second he was born,

"Kaiden, your dad. He's been bit by the werewolf, I'm sorry but there isn't anything we can do."

I couldn't believe it, he had to be lying. I thought for a moment, no, he wasn't lying. I had seen my dad be attacked with my own eyes and I knew what that meant. I knew we were running out of time for him,

"Kay, honey, I know this is hard for you, but you have to shoot me with a silver bullet. You can't let me get away; you have to stop me from becoming a werewolf."

His voice was gentle, but I could hear the edge of pain in it. The wound on his leg must have had him in agony, but he barely let it show. "Do it!" he yelled at me and the guys "shoot me in the heart! Now!" every trace of the gentle man that was talking a second ago was gone.

I crawled closer to him, my eyes full of unshed tears,

"Daddy, I can't do that, I can't."

In one swift movement he had ripped my pistol out of the waistband of my jeans where I kept it, he looked up at Dean and the other man I recognized as Sam Winchester, Dean's little brother who was the same age as me. Sam had brown hair and these adorable blue-green eyes; he stood taller than his brother at about six-five.

"Take her with you. Keep her safe. Don't let anyone hurt her." He turned to me, "Kay, I love you. I know I haven't been the best of father. But I love you so much. You go with Sam and Dean. You stay safe little girl."

He pulled me into a hug and I lost control of my tears,

"Daddy, I love you so much."

My father told the boys to not let me watch and Sam gently put an arm around my shoulder and turned me to face away, my heart was in my throat. My entire body stiffened when I heard the sound of the gun that had been resting against my back only moments before. I couldn't bring myself to turn around; I couldn't see my father dead on the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks to everyone who commented. It's greatly appreciated. Here's the next chapter, regretfully not much happier...Enjoy!

Dean came up beside me and murmured,  
"We have to go. We just got word we're needed in Louisiana, it's a week's trip, I'm sorry. Do you have all your stuff with you?"  
I looked up at him for a moment; I had no clue what he was talking about, why would he care if I had all of my stuff with me? Of course I did, I never left anything in any of the disgusting motels we stayed in, because it is was too easy for some maid to steal my stuff and because of the fact that I never knew when I would have to leave quickly and have no time to run back and get my gear. Realization dawned on me as I remembered what my dad had said. He wanted me to go with Sam and Dean.

Normally I would have been fine with going off on my own, but this was different, I was a wreck and even though I am stubborn as hell doesn't mean I was going to go hunting while I was emotional and I knew I would be all around irrational.

"Yea," I said, "it's in the trunk of-" I was about to say "my dads car" but then it hit me, it wasn't his car anymore, he didn't have anything, he was dead.  
I refused to cry. No way was I going to be the one who freaked out and was crying all the time, I had already cried once tonight and that fulfilled my quota for the year, I didn't want to go around freaking out Sam and Dean with my blubbering.

With that thought I began walking in the direction towards the street where the car was parked, I ended up loosing my footing on a hill and went tumbling down the muddy slopes and into a stream that sufficiently covered me in disgusting water. Well so much for my composure at that point, I burst into tears, sobbing like a six year old girl. To the normal person walking by, I would have looked like a maniac; it's embarrassing for me to even be telling you this now. However there were no passers-by due to the fact that it was well past midnight in a forest, no one in their right mind would be here; well except for hunters, but no one has ever said that anyone who chooses to risk their life daily to hunt for things that most of the population doesn't even believe in qualifies as sane.

So anyways, I'm in this stream, no one is saying anything although I know Sam and Dean were standing there, watching me. I looked up at them, tears still running down my face, looked back in the general direction of my father's body; and attempted to stand up, but ended up slipping in the mud once again.

I was only laying there for a few moments before two strong arms lifted me up and rested me against the body they were attached to, you see, if this was any other day I would have stood up and brushed myself off and pretended nothing had happened, but then again this wasn't every other day, my father had died and I was sure it was my fault. So instead of doing what I would have normally done, I leaned into the warm body and continued crying,

"Shh," Dean said cradling me, "shhh it'll be okay. Come on, you need some sleep, Sam how far to the closest motel?"

"About forty miles." Sam replied, I could hear him shifting his feet in the leaves.

I wanted to pull myself together, slide out of Dean's arms and act like myself; what I wanted, honestly, was my dad back, I wanted to be a little kid again and I wanted my mom to be alive.

All of these thoughts only made me cry harder and has a result of that Dean's arms tightened around me.

I spent the entire trip back in Dean's arms, thinking about what had happened tonight, I thought about time I had spent with Sam and Dean when I was younger, I was only 4 and they were like my family until I was 13. Their dad was a hunter so when my dad went out on hunts he used to leave me with the boys; Dean was used to responsibility, he had taken care of Sam pretty much all his life.

I heard the sound of shoes on dirt and leaves change to the sound of gravel; I lifted my head to see what was going on and saw a black Impala parked beside the car my dad and I had came in. Dean eased me onto my own feet and I looked around dazedly, I watched as the two men walked over to the car and grab my bags from the trunk; it was funny, but not funny ha-ha, I didn't remember giving them my keys. I preferred thinking about simple things like my keys instead of the darker problems that I knew I would eventually have to face.

I looked up to see Dean staring at me expectantly,

"I asked you if you're okay."

"Yes." I said but was unsatisfied by the wobble in my voice, I knew I looked terrible but I was happy that neither of the Winchester brothers had babied me, yet.

I got in the car that Dean was holding the door open to and tried to fight a fresh wave of tears, the whole crying at random intervals thing was really beginning to freak me out.  
Sam slid into the passenger seat as Dean walked around the car, got into the driver's side and started the car.

I looked around the beautifully restored vintage car, and immediately recognized it as John, the boys' fathers' car.

"How long have you had John's car?" I asked the boys

"Since I turned 20." Dean answered

I nodded my head, but realized that they weren't looking at me so they obviously couldn't see it, "Ok."

I spent the rest of the drive staring out the window watching stationary things fly by as Dean drove at a ridiculous speed the entire way to the motel and I was so dazed that I didn't even realized when we pulled into the parking lot of a motel.

I continued staring off into space until Sam's voice brought me back to reality,

"Hey, Kaiden. We're here." It was interesting, Sam had never been the type to chat your ear off without need but at the same time he had been uncharacteristically quiet all night. I realized that I had been staring off into space again and slid out of the car.

I walked to the back of the car to grab my duffle bag but Dean had it already over his shoulder and refused to let me help with anything. Well that was until I grabbed the bag and pulled so hard that he had no choice but to either have his arm dislocated or let go of the bag. He turned around and gave me a surprised look which I responded to but raising my eyebrows and walking towards the room that Sam had just unlocked with the key he got from the front desk.

I stopped on the threshold of the room, peering in. It was a tiny little room with two queen beds. I knew this was going to be a problem, there were three of us and there was no way that Dean and Sam would share and bed.

I walked into the room and a wave of emotional and physical exhaustion hit me and I flopped face-first onto the bed. I didn't have the energy to care weather or not it was polite of me to take a bed when they had already gone out of their way to help me.

I heard Dean enter the room and close the door behind him and began talking in hushed tones to Sam.

I dragged myself off the mattress and stood in front of the two men and they immediately stopped talking and turned to face me,  
"I'll take the couch. You guys can have the beds." I was used to sleeping in uncomfortable conditions and compared to where I'd been sleeping the past couple of weeks a smelly couch was a god send.

My mouth was set; Sam and Dean had known me long enough to know that when I was determined to do something, there was no stopping me. Like that moment for instance, I was set that they would sleep on the bed and I would sleep on the couch and most likely have springs digging into my back all night, but by god that's the way it was going to happen.

Anyways the guys didn't protest at all, which was strange; although Dean was never the gentlemanly time unless he was trying to seduce someone, which he had never tried on me since the only time I was around him was before I hit puberty and that would just be plain weird, Sam on the other hand was generally pretty considerate of others, I'd always liked him for that.

So I had a date with the stained couch. I had a quick shower to rid myself of the mud that I had accumulated on my skin and clothes, changed into some pjs and headed towards my bed for the night I was so tired that only a moment after I lay on the couch I was sound asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

_I was running through a forest, I could hear screaming; my dad's screaming. I had to get to him but I couldn't get there fast enough. I heard the howl of a werewolf and then there was no more noise. I closed my eyes, when I re-opened them I was in a room, in a basement. I could barely make out anything from the blood that was in my eyes. I went to feel my forehead for a cut but I couldn't lift my hands, I was stuck to the wall. All of a sudden there was a flash of blinding pain._

I woke up as a scream escaped my lips; I sat up quickly, covered in a cold sweat. I tried to look around to get my bearings but I couldn't see much since there was something running into my eyes. I reached up to find the source of the problem, and with a stinging pain my fingers found a rather large gash on my forehead that was bleeding steadily into my eyes. I turned my attention to the extremely sharp pain that was coming from my stomach.  
I got up off the couch and blindly started stumbling in the direction of the bathroom. I heard someone stir when I tripped over the duffle bag that had been left in the middle of the floor, at least I thought it was the middle of the floor, I didn't have any reference points in the dark. I let out a soft curse and began pulling myself off the floor when a sharp pain shot up both of my legs. I managed to suppress a scream but a squeak had escaped before I could pull myself together and I heard one of the guys sit up,   
"Kaiden? Is that you? Are you okay?" Dean's voice cam across the room in a whisper that was thick with sleep, I heard worry in his voice. It seemed as though he hadn't lost his protective streak.  
"There's something wrong with my legs. I can't walk." I replied in a tense whisper. The pain wasn't as bad as it had been before but it was still enough for me to have to clench my teeth against crying out.  
Dean got up from his bed, was picking me up into his arms, yet again, and walking towards the bathroom within seconds.  
He closed the door behind us before turning on the light so that it wouldn't disturb Sam. He sat me down on the edge of the bathtub, I started teetering and almost fell in before he caught me and decided that it was better that I sit where I couldn't fall and placed me on the floor, leaning against the wall.  
Dean stepped back to get a good look at me and his eyes widened. He muttered something to himself and began wiping the blood from my eyes, for which I was eternally grateful. I looked down at myself to see the white t-shirt I had been sleeping in was covered in blood,  
"I think a lot of the blood is from my stomach."  
He lifted my shirt to get a look at the damage,  
"What the hell did you do to yourself?!" his voice was still a whisper but it had risen slightly with an emotion that I couldn't quite pin down.  
I gave him an offended look and slapped his hands away from where they were prodding the wound on my stomach,  
"Damn it Dean! I didn't do anything to myself, I had this dream where – never mind the point is I woke up in a lot of pain and I couldn't see so I got up to go to the bathroom and then my legs like, stopped working and then you woke up."  
Dean thought about what I had said for a moment before he spoke again,  
"You're Sammy's age right?" I nodded my head, "Jesus, we need Sammy."  
Dean walked out of the bathroom before I could question his last comment. I was quickly lost in my own thoughts; Dean knew that my mom had died the day I turned six months. The same thing had happened to Mary Winchester, the boys' mom, on Sam's six month birthday. My dad started looking into the supernatural around that time, but didn't really start hunting any of it until I was six, that was when he met John Winchester, I met Sam and Dean a little while after that and started spending a lot of time with them. My dad started hunting with John. I rarely saw my dad for years after that; he became so obsessed with the job that he barely had any time for me. My brother was ten when our mom died and he refused to put up with my dad's "delusions." He didn't believe that there was anything out there in the dark; he chose to believe there was a scientific reason behind everything. Needless to say my brother, Brian, and I never really got along.  
Neither Dean or Sam ever met Brian; he left when my dad told us he was going to hunt the things he had studied since our mom died, my brother freaked out, he just packed his bags and left.  
I had been so deep in my own thoughts that I didn't even see Sam come into the bathroom and crouch in front of me. He began wiping the blood out of my eyes, where it had began to pool again, just like Dean had, except he pulled a couple band-aides out of his shave kit and began placing them over the cut on my forehead. I could tell he was trying to be gentle but I still flinched in pain,  
"Sorry," he murmured, then looked me in the eyes, "Kaiden, do you – I mean; Dean told me what you said. Have you had dreams like these before?"  
I seriously considered not telling him the truth. I mean I was already the girl with the dead parents; I didn't need to be the girl with the dead parents who also got freaky visions and saw things before they happened. Nuh-uh, no way in hell. But then I thought about my wounds and current inability to walk, there was a chance that my dreams would continue to worsen and they might do some serious damaged, well worse then bleeding all over and not being able to walk.  
Anyways I thought that I should give these two guys who had helped me so much when I was younger and were now helping me once again the courtesy of the truth, I sighed and opened my mouth,  
"They've been happening for about a year. I- uh dream things before they happen, I'd been dreaming about something terrible happening in a forest. I had an awful feeling that something was going to happen. I ignored it and now my dad is dead."  
I did realize that I had mostly rambled on; but I blamed my lack of ability to put a sentence together on the fact that I was losing a lot of blood through a massive hole in my stomach.  
I felt my energy drain and my eyes slide closed,  
"Whoa, whoa! Come on honey, stay with me."  
I managed to tell him about my stomach; and after taking a look he grabbed a towel and held it against the gash.  
Dean came back into the bathroom carrying food that I assumed came from a vending machine, he handed me a bag of skittles,  
"Uh thanks Dean, but I'm not that hungry at the moment."  
Yes I had lost a lot of blood, but I hadn't lost my ability to be a snot,  
"It's not for your hunger, or lack there of. It's for blood sugar. So shut-up and eat-up."  
He looked to Sam who was still holding the towel tightly against my abs, "How's she doing?"  
I was moderately insulted about the fact that he didn't even ask the question to me. But then again it was nice to know someone cared about me just as much as they cared about the hunt, much unlike my own father,  
"She needs to go to a hospital, the cut on her forehead is shallow, but the one on her stomach is deep. It needs stitches."  
That grabbed my attention, "I am not going to the hospital," I said with force, "I have a needle and thread. If neither of you can sew worth a damn, I will do it myself."  
I was putting my foot down, figuratively speaking of course, since I wasn't sure I could stand, let alone stomp.  
Dean made a sound that could only be classified as a snort and turned to Sam, who spoke,  
"Kaiden, you are crazy to choose a dirty motel bathroom over a nice sterile hospital. You need medical attention."  
I gritted my teeth and looked Sam straight in the eyes,  
"I am not going to a hospital. Sam, you told me that Dean is a wanted criminal. You are too Sam. It wouldn't be the best idea to prance into a hospital when your being tracked by the feds."  
Dean sighed,  
"Sammy, she's right. Kaiden won't go to the hospital and we arn't in a position where it would be a good idea to bring any attention to ourselves. Fake identies or not." He turned to me, "There is no way in hell that I am letting you sew yourself shut; tell me where the needle and thread are. I will do it myself. Sam get the whiskey out of my bag."  
The two Winchester men ran around gathering supplies, Sam came into the bathroom and sat behind me and I leaned back on him, he wrapped his hands around my forearms.  
Dean came back into the bathroom holding a bottle of whiskey and my needle and thread.  
He cleaned the wound with the whiskey, threaded the needle and tried to pass the bottle to me, I shook my head,  
"No thanks, I don't drink."  
"It's for the pain, believe me; you don't want to do this without it."  
I shook my head again, and he shrugged his shoulders,  
"Fine," he said, "This is your last chance for a nice clean hospital and some good old medication."  
"Just do it." I said through clenched teeth.  
The next fifteen minutes were exactly how I envisioned hell would be like.  
No matter how careful Dean tried to be, it still hurt like a son of a bitch. Nothing can compare to having your skin sewn together in a motel bathroom without any kind of pain-killer.  
Sam kept my arms tightly in his hands, so I wouldn't try to punch Dean; honestly I probably would have if I'd had the chance.  
Once Dean was finished I tried to stand up, but both he and Sam stopped me before I could even fully sit up.  
"Don't move until you aren't feeling weak anymore, and don't try to tell me that you feel find because we both know that's a load of crap."  
For pretty much the first time in my life I didn't argue. I looked from Sam to Dean and from Dean to Sam. I saw the exhaustion in both of their eyes,  
"Your guys, go to bed. You're pretty much dead on our feet."  
Dean thought for a moment,   
"Sammy, you go to sleep. I'll stay here with Kaiden. I won't be able to sleep anyways."  
Sam nodded, gave me a quick hug and then walked back into the other room.  
Dean shut the door behind him and leaned against the wall beside me and closed his eyes,  
"You falling asleep on me?" I asked jokingly,  
"Of course not." He mumbled without opening his eyes.  
I was falling asleep, for a while I tried to fight it but eventually gave in and leaned completely against Dean's body and let the exhaustion over take me.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up a few hours later to a ray of sun shining in the grimy bathroom window and directly into my eyes. I mentally groaned; I was so exhausted I had no interest in getting up.  
I slowly opened my eyes and looked around the bathroom, the small amount of day light that made it through the dirt-covered window didn't do much to improve the looks of the bathroom, the place was a breeding ground for germs, and I was lying on the floor. Positively disgusting.  
I went to get up but there was a weight across my waist. I looked down and saw Dean's arm around me and suddenly became very aware of everything from the very male sent coming from Dean, to the closeness of both our bodies. He was still asleep, and for that I was grateful, I felt so at home in his arms and wanted it to last as long as possible. Then it hit me like a sack of bricks.  
I Kaiden Trent had a thing for Dean Winchester. I lay there for a moment in absolute horror, I had grown up with Dean, and he had taken care of me. I eventually accepted my feelings for him and then a wave of sadness over came me, there was no way Dean liked me the way I liked him, he probably still thought of me as the little girl in pig tails that he used to baby-sit.  
I felt Dean move behind me and I knew he was awake, I sat up and looked at him with a shy smile, he looked up at me and then quickly glanced away, clearly uncomfortable. He cleared his throat,  
"How are the stitches?" he questioned breaking the silence,  
"Not bad, there is more of a dull pain now, nothing I can't handle."  
Dean nodded his head and stood up; I noticed that he was wearing only an old t-shirt and a pair of black boxers. He opened the door of the bathroom and walked into the main room.  
"Sam?" I heard him call, "Sammy?!"  
I pulled myself off the tile floor and, with a great effort, walked into the room.  
"Dean, what's the matter?"  
"It's Sammy, he's gone!"  
I spotted a post-it on the bedside table, I picked it up,  
"Dean, calm down, look, it's a note. 'Went to get coffee, be back soon.' See Dean, he's okay."  
He sat down heavily on the bed, his head in his hands; I could see them shaking just a little.  
The poor guy, he felt such a strong need to protect his baby brother, I could only imagine how exhausting that would be.

All of a sudden I felt light headed, I didn't want to be the girl that passed out, I mean seriously, how embarrassing would that be?  
I walked over to the bed he was sitting on and went to sit beside him but missed the mattress by a couple inches; I hit the carpet with a heavy thump and smacked my head against the base of the night stand.  
It took a couple seconds for Dean to jump up off the bed and run to my side,  
"Jesus, Kaiden! Are you okay?"  
Yes, that was in fact about as embarrassing as fainting would have been.  
I was very aware of the fact that he had scooped me into his arms yet again and as soon as he touched me, my heart skipped a beat.  
Horrified that he might be able to tell what kind of affect he had on me, I quickly squirmed out of his arms and struggled to stand on my own two feet.  
"Yes, I'm fine. Thanks for the concern. I am fine."  
Dean opened his mouth to say something; but instead turned his head to see Sam come in the door carrying a tray of coffee, he looked at me and smiled,  
"Hey Kaiden, you're looking better. I got coffee; I didn't know how you take yours so I brought some cream and sugar."  
I beamed up at him, "Sam how did you know the way to my heart was through coffee? I take mine black; thanks for the thought."  
He passed me a cup and I took a long drink, letting the hot liquid slide down my throat. It was pure heaven and I all but moaned.  
Dean stood up from where he was kneeling on the carpet between the two beds and walked over to Sam to get his own cup of coffee.  
The three of us sat in a comfortable silence before I spoke,  
"So where are we headed and what are we hunting?"  
Dean gave me a severe look, "We are going to Louisiana, so let's pack up and go."  
I had no issue doing just that; I had too many bad memories attached to this room. I shoved all of my stuff back into my duffle bag and hurried out to the car, sliding into the backseat. I had thought about taking the front but then again Sam was a lot taller than I was and it would be plain mean of me to make him sit in the cramped backseat. The guys eventually came out to the car and loaded it up with their stuff. Dean hopped into the driver's seat and Sam took his usual spot riding shot-gun.  
I was happy to be on the road. I would give me something else to think about other than what had happened the night before. I couldn't believe it had only been under a day since I'd lost my father. It seemed like he had been gone for years. I rested my head against the car window and began to catch up on the sleep I had been missing out on.

It took us a week to get to Oakdale Louisiana. And it was beginning to weird me out that Dean wouldn't even talk about the hunt. He had a dark look on his face and I couldn't figure what was wrong with him.  
"So guys," I said with a chipper voice, as I leaned up against the back of their seat, "Who wants to tell Kaiden about this hunt?"  
Dean looked at me through the rear view mirror,  
"Sam and I are going after a poltergeist in an old apartment building." He said in a hard voice,  
"Just Sam and you?" I asked with a tone matching his,   
"We'll talk about this when we get to the motel." Dean said.  
So I shut up. For the time being, I knew when to keep quiet but there was no way in hell I was going to back down from a fight when one was needed.  
I waited until we got to the motel and were settled in until I brought it up again. I flopped down on the couch that was set up against one of the walls, pulling off my shoes and socks and animatedly looked at my watch at back up at the guys,   
"Would you look at that. It's time for you two to tell me what the hell is going on."  
Sam could sense a fight coming on and sat down on one of the beds. Dean gave me a hard look,  
"As I said in the car. Sam and I are going to get the poltergeist in an old apartment building. You will stay at the motel. Are we clear?"  
I was seriously offended. I mean what the hell? Did he think that I couldn't do the job?  
"Excuse me Dean?" I said, struggling to keep my voice calm,  
"You heard exactly what I said and there is no way I am putting you in that kind of danger by letting you in on his hunt. End of story."  
By that time I was royally pissed off. I stood quickly up off the couch so I would be eye level with him; or as close to it as I could be since he was nine inches taller that me,  
"In case you forgot Dean, I am just as capable on a hunt as you are. So don't you even try to give me that bullshit."  
I had tried to keep my temper, but failed miserably, I was two inches from his face and screaming by the end of my sentence.  
"If case you forgot Kaiden," Dean yelled right back mimicking my tone, "the last hunt you went on, someone died and we had to save your ass!"  
I stumbled back as if he had hit me; I felt my eyes go round. I went to say something but my mouth just hung open.  
Sam, who had been watching the argument from the sidelines a moment ago, stepped between me and Dean,  
"That's enough." He said in a low voice.  
Dean looked at me with an apology in his eyes but said nothing. I couldn't stay in that room a second longer; I opened the door, stepped out and closed it quietly.  
I stood staring at the grey sky for a few moments before I started running. I didn't know where I was running to but I needed to stop thinking about what Dean had said.  
I used to run all the time in high school, I loved it; I could go to a place when I ran where nothing existed except my feet, the pavement and the sound of my steady breathing. In school I never had many friends; I was the freaky girl with the knife collection. It wasn't like I didn't want friends; it was they didn't want to be around me. I have some issues for a while; I thought I was ugly and fat, so I became anorexic. I eventually got so sick that I ended up in a hospital. It took a while but I finally realized that if people didn't want to be around me, that wasn't a poor reflection on me, it was a poor reflection on them.  
I ran until the pain from my feet finally entered my consciousness and I had to stop before they started to bleed. It had started raining just after I had started running and was now pouring down in sheets. I stood in my soaked jeans and t-shirt looking up at the sky, feeling the warm tears run down my face.  
My legs gave out and I stayed there, slumped over and lay on the ground in a ball, ignoring the protesting of my stitches that resulted from curled up position I was in. I don't know how long I laid there for, just crying with the rain pouring down on top of me; I didn't feel the cold of the wind or the clinging of my wet t-shirt against my skin. I felt empty, I had cried myself out and I didn't even have the energy to sit up.  
I heard the rumble of an old engine and knew it was the Impala. I could barely hear it pull to a stop beside me over the sound of the rain that was only getting louder. I listened closely for any other noises; I heard the sound of shoes walking across the gravel towards me, I couldn't see who it was since my back was facing the road.  
I heard Dean's voice through the rain,  
"Kaiden?"  
If it had been Sam I would have rolled over and said that I was fine. But Dean was on my shit-list so there was no way in hell I was going to do anything for him, let him worry. Maybe if he thought I was dead he would leave me alone.  
I heard him say my name again and he put his hands on my shoulder, that was it  
"What do you what from me?" I said without turning around.  
"Kay, I'm sorry. God I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Any of it. I just don't think you're in the best condition for a hunt."  
And there was his other mistake; he wouldn't let me hunt. I was pissed off as hell at him, but the guy sounded so haggard that I sat up and faced him, still sitting on the wet gravel.  
"You're right. You shouldn't have. And don't call me Kay. Since the only man that I allowed to call me that is dead, and as you so sweetly pointed out, it is completely my fault."  
The tears were falling down my face again and I hated the fact that Dean could see it. His face softened, he pulled me into his arms for a bone-crushing hug and I didn't fight him; no matter how mad I was at him there was no denying the fact that I had a huge thing for him. Frankly it was embarrassing since I was positive it wasn't something he would return.  
"Kaiden, I wasn't saying that stuff because of you," he said into my hair, "I said it because of me. Ever since dad died-"  
"John's dead?!" I said appalled, pulling out of the hug and staring at him.  
Dean nodded his head, "he died a couple months ago, I was in a coma and he made a deal with a demon so I'd live. He's dead and it's my fault. I wasn't supposed to wake up."  
It was my turn to hug him tightly,  
"God Dean. I didn't know. I'm so sorry."  
I looked closely at his face and saw that he was fighting tears. Dean stood up and began pulling me with him. I was going to get up but then I thought about what I really wanted,  
"Dean would you walk back to the motel with me?" and quickly finished "I mean if you don't want to that's totally okay. I mean I don't expect you to walk in the freezing rain just because I asked you-"  
I stopped talking at the sight of Dean's smile, he said he'd walk back with me and he signaled Sam, who I had just noticed was sitting in the car, to go ahead and he began to walk back with me.  
About five minutes into the walk back I stepped on something sharp,  
"Ow!" I called out in pain.  
Dean looked down at me with an alarmed expression, "What? What is it?"  
"I stepped on something sharp."  
He looked down and noticed for the first time that I wasn't wearing any shoes, and without even a word he lifted me up into his arms. My face was inches from his,  
"You've sure been doing this a lot lately," I said in a whisper, being this close to Dean made me feel breathless  
"Well you keep getting yourself into situations that require me sweeping you into my arms." Dean's voice was just as breathless as mine was,  
"What would you do if I told you I think I'm falling for you?"  
"Probably something like this." He let me slide down onto my tip-toes but kept me pressed against his body.  
"Dean?" I could hardly breath,  
He leaned down and gently kissed me and immediately the entire world slipped away; I couldn't feel the gravel digging into my feet or the rain pouring down onto my body. All I could feel was Dean's arms around me and his mouth on mine.  
Our mouths eventually parted and Dean picked me back up into his arms, I smiled to myself as we walked, well he was the one doing all of the walking, but whatever. It felt as thought my heart was swelling; I couldn't believe what had just happened.  
My face was resting against his neck and I murmured in his ear,  
"I understand why you don't want me on that hunt. I'll sit on the sidelines. But only for this one, Okay?"  
He smiled down at me, "Okay." He kissed me again and I snuggled closer into his body.  
I hadn't realized how tired I was until then; we had been traveling non-stop for the past week and I had barely gotten any sleep since we had been sleeping in the car for quite a few of the nights, and that is far from luxury.  
It took us about twenty minutes to get back to the motel and by that time the wind had mostly died down and it was only spitting slightly. Dean unlocked the door while still holding me in his arms and swung it open.  
Sam was laying on one of the beds sound asleep;  
"I guess he was more tired then he let on." I whispered.  
Dean smiled and put me down on my feet. It was just then that I realized how cold I was and started shivering uncontrollably,  
"Let's get you a hot shower and into some dry clothes." He suggested.  
I had no issue with that suggestion; those were the two things I wanted desperately.  
I grabbed my duffle bag, pulled out a new set of clothes and walked into the bathroom off the main room.  
I had an amazing hot shower that lasted about thirty minutes and only got out when the hot water ran out. Dried myself off, slid into some clean clothes and walked back into the main room.  
Dean and Sam were sitting around the table in the middle of the room with papers spread all over the table,  
"What are you guys talking about?" I asked and walked over to the table with a bounce in my step, I felt good,  
"Just reading about the job." Sam said carefully, I could tell he still wasn't sure about how happy I was about missing out on a hunt,  
"Oh. Okay. Well that's cool. How long do you think it will take you to finish this up?"  
Dean gave me a smile that reflected what had happened this afternoon,  
"It's all pretty cut and dry; we know where the bones are. We salt 'em and burn 'em and then its miller time."


	5. Chapter 5

Dark came and the boys left to go to the apartment building that they had been talking about all week long. I was hoping that I could at least sit in the car when they went in, but Dean immediately shot down that idea and I had to stay in a motel all by myself. I was in a bad mood.  
It was around ten when Sam and Dean left the room and they didn't come back until around four a.m.  
I had fallen asleep watching infomercials and was woken by a pounding on the door. I wasn't stupid; so I grabbed a shotgun and went to open the door.  
Sam who was leaning against the door and holding up Dean fell into the room. They were both beaten to hell,  
"What the hell happened?" I said my voice horrified, "I thought Dean said it was cut and dry!"  
Dean was out cold and Sam was barely conscious; I dragged Dean all the way into the room and went back to help Sam in,  
"I can make it myself," he said in a tense voice, "go help Dean. He looked pretty bad."  
I refused to leave him alone; I practically dragged him into the room and helped him onto the bed.  
Sam's nose was bleeding and he had a nasty black eye. Dean on the other hand was much worse; his face was covered in cuts and his clothes torn to pieces. After I removed his jacket and ripped t-shirt I could see some serious bruising and a possibility of a couple cracked ribs. I heard Dean groan and saw his eyes open,  
"This is what I have to do for you to undress me?"   
I knew he was in pain but it couldn't have been that bad if he was well enough to crack jokes, but I thought I should ask anyways just to be sure,  
"How are you feeling Dean?" I said with more than a hint of concern in my voice.  
"Peachy." He said in a strained voice, "What's the diagnosis Doc?"  
I smiled down at him, "worst case scenario; a couple cracked ribs, some pretty bad bruises and cuts." I looked over to Sam on the other bed, "Sam how you doing over there?"  
"I'm fine. Just tired." He mumbled with his eyes still closed,  
"I think what you both need is a good night's sleep."  
Dean looked down at himself, "I think I need sleep. But I need a shower more. I'm disgusting."  
Well there was no denying that, he was covered in dirt and blood. Not the most attractive combination,  
"Okay. A quick shower and then you really should get some sleep. I want to start heading to Kentucky tomorrow morning."  
Dean pulled himself off the bed, "Shower here I come," he looked at me, "I'm always up for a quickie."  
I rolled my eyes at his stupid joke and followed him into the bathroom,   
"Ooh are you taking me up on my offer?" he said with a big grin on his face,  
"No you moron, you're really stiff so I figured you should need a hand getting your clothes off."  
"I have no issue letting you get me naked." I hadn't thought his grin could get any bigger, but apparently I had been wrong,  
"Listen wise guy, you're not getting any action from me tonight. You need to get cleaned up and then go to bed. Don't make me do it myself." I immediately regretted my choice of words but Dean knew by the look on my face not to make anymore smartass comments.  
He looked at me and his face softened, "You only get this bossy when you're scared."  
I sighed and leaned into him, letting him wrap his arms around me. He had gotten to know me really well again over the past week, he probably knew me better now then he did when we were younger. Sometimes I wish he forgot some of the little details about me,  
"I was so scared when you and Sam fell in the door; I thought you were dead. I was terrified someone else I loved had died." I admitted; I could feel the tears running down my face. I hadn't had time to get emotional when the boys first came in but now the commotion was over and I could tell how terrified I really was.  
"I'm sorry," I whispered,  
"What for?" he asked, his voice surprisingly rough considering the tenderness of the moment,  
"I'm crying, again. I've been doing this a lot lately, you must think I'm some kind of blubbering weirdo."  
"Well you are a blubbering weirdo that I have a major thing for." He said whispering into my ear. Put a finger under my chin and raised my face to his.  
Dean lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me deeply. I pulled back from him unwillingly  
"Dean we can't do this; you're hurt. And you need your sleep more than this."  
Dean opened his mouth to argue but I just put a finger over his mouth and then turned my attention to getting the shower ready,  
"There you go Dean, now be quiet and get clean."  
I left Dean in the bathroom to shower and walked into the main room. I changed into my traditional choice of pajamas; an old t-shirt and a pair of boxers.  
Sam was sound asleep on the same bed he had been on when I had gone into the bathroom with Dean; I pulled the covers over him and turned off the lamp beside him.  
I sat on the couch with the latest issue of Cosmopolitan and within a few seconds my eyes were sliding shut.  
I'm not sure how much time passed until Dean was gently shaking my shoulders to me wake up; it must have been at least ten minutes; since he had gotten out of the shower, dried off and found a pair of boxers to sleep in,  
"Are you wearing my boxers?" he whispered in an amused tone,  
"Yea, I couldn't find my own." I answered, getting up off the couch and walking towards the bed with him.  
We both climbed into the bed, he pulled the blankets up over me and pulled me into him, wrapping his arms around me.  
He placed a kiss on my collar bone and I quickly drifted off to sleep.

_I could hardly move, there was pain shooting through my body and I could feel blood running down my face. I could barely see from all the blood in my eyes but I could just make out my blood-soaked shirt and I knew it was coming from the cut on my stomach that was causing me a blinding amount of pain.  
I could hear pounding and yelling, I recognized the voices of Sam and Dean coming through the wall opposite of me. I went to move towards their voices but I realized I was completely pinned to the wall. Through the blood I could make out a figure walking slowly towards me; I recognized him but I couldn't place him. He smiled at me; an evil smile full of hatred,  
"Goodbye Kaiden."_

I woke with a jolt; drenched in a cold sweat,  
"Kay. What's wrong?" Dean's voice came to me through the darkness and he protectively pulled me towards him.  
I was shaking so hard I could barely get my mouth to form words,  
"I h-had another n-nightmare." The warmth of his body felt amazing against my cold skin,  
"Honey you're freezing." Dean got up from the bed and I heard him searching in his duffle bag. He came back to bed with a big flannel button-up shirt and some thick socks. He put the shirt around me and buttoned it up and slid the socks over my freezing toes,  
"Thanks." I murmured,  
"So do you want to tell me about your dream? Was it like an every-day nightmare or one of your see into the future nightmares?"  
I opened my mouth to answer when I heard a voice gruff with sleep come across the room,  
"Would you two be quiet? Not everyone feels the need to have a middle of the night bonding experience."  
I felt a smile pull at my lips,   
"Sorry Sammy, we'll keep it down."  
"Don't call me Sammy." Were his last words before I heard him roll over and his breathing deepen,  
"That kid can sleep like a log," Dean whispered in my ear and I had to close my mouth tightly to suppress a giggle "Now. Tell me about your dream."  
"I was in some basement and I was pinned to a wall. There was a man in the room with me; I recognized him but I can't remember where I've seen him before. Anyways I could hear you guys yelling through a door or a wall or something. The man came close to me and said 'Goodbye Kaiden.' And then I woke up."  
"Every day nightmare or seeing into the future nightmare?" he said repeating his question.  
I was going to tell him the truth, I really was. But I didn't feel the urge to frighten him and if I told him that it was the latter one of my options he would question the hell out of me,  
"Just a normal one." I said turning to kiss him lightly on the lips,  
"Well that's a nice change." He said kissing me back with more force than the original kiss.  
I knew it was better that I had lied to him, especially since I realized who the man in my dream was as I lay in bed being held by Dean. The man in my dream was my brother.


	6. Chapter 6

Unlike in all those movies you see, the heroes can't always get to the danger in a split second. It takes some time, especially when the oldest, ego crazed one is terrified of flying. Come on I can't be the only one who finds the fact that Dean is terrified to fly hilarious. But me, being the good girlfriend I was decided not to bother Dean about his little fear.  
About three days into our road trip of driving all day and sleeping in the car at night the guys finally gave into my whining and got us a hotel room. With the excitement I had stepping into that room you would have thought it was a Fairmont hotel instead of some dirty ass motel that smelled a little funky. But hey, there are only so many nights you can sleep on a leather bench seat in a car, plus the leather sticks to your skin and hurts like a mother when you sit up, I wouldn't recommend it.  
So that night we (that's code for I) decided that we should go to a bar and have some fun, god knows that researching ancient mythology isn't exactly a party. For the first time in a long time I changed out of one of my traditional faded 70's band t-shirts and donned a much nicer button up shirt. I let down my honey blonde hair from where I usually kept it in a knot at the back of my head and put on some eye shadow that made my emerald-green eyes stand out even more than they did naturally. I looked good and I was ready to go, well, not get drunk since I hadn't touched any alcohol in years, but I was ready to go dance and just have a good time. Doing things that normal 23 three year olds got to do all the time, but just by the fact that I got dealt a crappy hand meant I didn't get to do normal stuff, I got to salt and burn bones of dead people. Lucky me.  
After I spent a ridiculously long around of time trying to convince the guys to wear something other than their regular clothes, I ended up following Dean out the door as he informed me,  
"It's not like anyone we know will be there, so there's no need to get all dressed up."  
It wasn't like I had been asking them to put on a suit and tie.  
Anyways back to what I was saying; after that fruitless argument and a fairly short drive, we were standing in front of a building that read "Blue Moon Bar," well this wasn't exactly what I had meant when I had said we should go somewhere fun, but what the hell? I was still holding out some hope that there would be some music playing inside.

There was no music playing. The bar was a total hole in the wall and the only customers other than us were a bunch of hair, heavily tattooed biker guys.  
I sighed and sat in a booth were I proceeded to watch Sam and Dean down a large quantity of beer. So much for my night on the town, it looked like it was going to be a pretty uneventful evening in the life of Kaiden Trent. I sighed and stared into the coke I had been drinking.  
Well that was until I spotted a juke box amidst those previously mentioned bikers. I was on my feet in a flash, and was walking towards the juke box without either Sam or Dean looking up from the newspaper article they were seemingly consumed by.  
I made my way across the bar in no time at all, it's not exactly like that bar was huge, and was weaving through the bikers, reciting a few, "Excuse me."s  
One or two of them whistled at me but I ignored them and concentrated on picking my song, I inserted my quarters into the machine and made my way to the small clearing in the tables as "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner started blaring out of the juke box.  
I have always loved dancing and, this isn't be bragging or anything, but when I took jazz dance class in the fourth grade I was by far the best. Especially since I had a neon green leotard while all the other stupid prissy girls had those baby pink ones.  
Even thinking about those dance classes made me smile, I had only been in them for a few weeks while my dad and John Winchester were out on a hunt. Dean had Sam had taken me every Tuesday and Thursday for the time until my ten year-old self had gotten sick of all the teasing that the other girls had thrown at me. I remember looking over one day during class at a 14 year-old Dean and Sam who was ten just like me, they were both slouched over in their chairs looking uncomfortable, but as soon as I caught Dean's eye he gave me a big smile.  
Even back then I had felt more at home with him then I ever had with my own father. Although that was when I still saw him as the big brother that Brian never was for me. Instead of now, I saw him as, well definitely not a brother.  
Anyways I had been dancing for no more than a couple minutes when one of the disgusting bikers came up behind me and danced uncomfortably close, I wouldn't have minded if it had been Dean, but this guy was nothing like him.  
I looked over to the table and saw both of the Winchester men staring at me, well Sam was looking at me, Dean was looking at the guy behind me and he had a murderous look in his eye.  
At that moment the hugely perverted man grabbed my hips and turned me around, pressing his body against mine. Well I was completely disgusted and majorly pissed off, I wrenched myself out of his grasp and simultaneously punched him as hard as I could in the nose. I felt something crunch underneath the force of my knuckles, and soon enough he was on his knees trying to stop the bleeding of a broken nose,  
"You bitch! You bitch!" was all he could manage.  
I turned and smiled at Dean who had been making his way over to where I was, when he saw my face he stopped and visibly relaxed.  
When I went back to face the group of bikers, a fist connected with my face, then another, then another. The punches sent my reeling. I had been hit three times before I heard a female voice,  
"You stupid slut! This is what you get for laying a hand on my brother!"  
I would have informed her that it was in fact her brother who had laid his hands on me first, but as I opened my mouth my entire head was forced down and a knee slammed into my face. The pain was absolutely excruciating, and I prayed to god that my nose hadn't broken. A pair of hands clasped onto my shoulders and pulled me back. Well this is wonderful I thought, just in case I wasn't getting my ass kicked enough, they felt the need to double-gang me! Well that's when I heard whoever owned those hands speak in a deep, sexy voice,  
"If you lay another hand on my girlfriend, I promise you that I will break every bone in your body."  
I realized it was Dean before my jumbled brain got even more confused.  
Why was Dean helping the other side in the fight? I gave myself a mental shake and figured it out, Dean was saving my ass. Man, he was good to have around for defense, plus he sounded really hot doing it. I mean seriously, you just can't beat that.  
During these deep and insightful thoughts, Dean's voice had become more and more aggravated as he talked with the bikers. As I was coming back to reality from my own mind I felt him let go of my shoulders and lung towards the bikers. I didn't get a look at what he did after that since my balance was off from the multiple hits to the face, I began swaying and was about to topple over when another set of hands grabbed my arms,  
"Dean just doesn't know when to leave well enough alone." Said Sam in a more than slightly aggravated voice  
I had my eyes closed against the throbbing pain of my entire face so I didn't see much of the fight other than from when I opened them to see why we were moving forward. Sam had wrapped his arm around me and moved us forward and with his free arm grabbed his brother who was in a brawl that he was completely out numbered in.  
Once Sam had a grip on both of us he walked right out of the bar, I looked back and saw the bikers who had been previously been fighting with Dean, they all had shocked expressions on their faces. I guess they had never had someone they were fighting grabbed by their little brother and taken outside without saying a word.  
When we got outside Dean wrenched himself out of Sam's grasp,  
"What the hell dude? I had it under control!"  
Sam didn't even bother replying so to his brother's complaints, and when Dean realized there wasn't going to be a conversation about it he turned his attention to me,  
"God, Kaiden, she really didn't a number on you."  
I still didn't have the energy or mental awareness, so I instead let out a groan to demonstrate how I was feeling.  
Dean went to my side and wrapped his arm around me,  
"I've got her from here Sammy."  
Sam shrugged,  
"How you doing there champ?" He asked me,  
"Like crap." My brain had come together enough for me to form basic sentences, "I just got my ass handed to me by some chick."  
I both felt and heard Dean chuckle,  
"Well if it makes you feel any better, she wasn't exactly the most feminine thing." Sam informed me  
"Dude!" Dean exclaimed, "She had a friggen mustache!"  
Okay, that made me feel a bit better, if I had gotten beaten this bad by I girl in a sundress I would have been royally pissed.  
Dean helped me into the car and slid into the backseat beside me. The fog that had been in my head ever since that stupid biker chick smashed her knee into the bridge of my nose had cleared, and I noticed a steady stream of blood coming out of my nose. I uttered a curse and wiped it away, I was in a crappy mood,  
"Why didn't you guys leave me be? I had it under control." I sounded just like Dean  
Dean gave a humorless laugh,  
"Call me old fashioned, but I don't generally stand by and watch my girlfriend get beaten to a bloody pulp."  
I rolled my eyes at his comment,  
"It was completely unfair, she sucker punched me. I'm not used to that. I am trained in hand to hand combat, not hitting someone while they're not looking."  
"And the fact that she was twice your weight and height didn't help you out." Piped in Sam from the front seat, a big smile on his face,  
"Shut up Sammy." I grumbled  
Being called Sammy was enough to wipe the grin off his face. Knowing how to bug Sam perked me up enough to start thinking about some solutions to my fighting. Maybe Dean would help me with my combat skills since it had been years since I had been seriously trained. My dad had always just slapped a shot gun in my hand and told me to go for it. The boy's dad however trained them in every kind of fighting and taught them to use every kind of weapon. Their father actually wanted them alive, much unlike mine who until the day he died had only told me he loved me like ten times.  
We pulled into the parking lot of the motel we were staying in,  
"Hey Dean?" I asked as he helped me out of the car  
"Yea?"  
"Could you help me out with my fight? So, you know, I don't get the crap beaten out of me by some bar beast again."  
He smiled and looked down at me,  
"Yea, of course I will."  
That had been the first time since the fight that I had gotten a really good look at his face, and I felt really guilty that he had gotten hurt on my account. His lip was split and there was the beginning of a black eye forming on his right eye, not to mention multiple other bruises scattered on his face.  
He opened the door of the motel and held it so I could walk into the room ahead of him and Sam.  
I walked to the mirror that was on the wall across the room from the beds to check out the extent of the damage to my face,  
"Are you kidding me?" I demanded  
My face was already starting to swell and bruise, the worst was a horrible black and yellow bruise that had only began spreading across my nose and check bones.  
I sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, I heard water running and moments later Sam was handing me a cold wash cloth. I held it to my poor nose, which felt awesome, the wash cloth, not the current condition of my face,  
"You know, ever since you guys showed up I have been needing to be saved many times. This is getting ridiculous. I mean seriously. I'm a fighter, not some damsel in distress."  
Dean sat down on the bed beside me, rubbing my back comfortingly, I noticed that Sam had not gotten him a wash cloth, maybe that's because Dean chose to get into a fight, while I was thrown into one,  
"Kaiden, right now don't you think that maybe you aren't on your game 'cause you're still upset about your dad?"  
I have him an incredulous look and Sam added his two sense,  
"Which is perfectly understandable in a time like this."  
I didn't even feel like justifying their question with a response, a 'time like this,' my father had died almost three weeks ago. It wasn't a 'time like this' anymore, it was in the past and I was more than ready to leave that memory behind. I just wished people would quit bringing it up.  
I walked into the bathroom and began rinsing out the wash cloth and reapplied it to my face.  
I was sitting on the edge of the bath when I heard the door of the room open and close. So I pulled myself up from where I was sitting and walked into the main room where I was saw Sam sitting on the bed nearest the door with his computer open on his lap,  
"Sam, where'd Dean go?" I asked  
He answered without even looking up from what he was typing,  
"He went for a smoke."  
At that point I was confused to say the least,  
"Uh, Sam, Dean doesn't smoke."  
The youngest Winchester brother finally looked up at me and closed up lap-top,  
"He said you already drove him to drink and that did nothing, so the only thing he can think of to do was take up smoking."  
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open, I pulled myself together, threw a pillow at Sam and walked out the motel door.  
The Impala wasn't in the parking spot it had been in when we had come back to the motel from the bar. I figured Dean had just went for some sort of drive, at least I hoped so, I really didn't want to date a smoker.  
Anyway I sat on a bench that was right by the motel's run-down playground and was quickly lost in my own thoughts. About twenty minutes later I heard the rumble of the Impala's engine and saw the headlights as Dean's old car pulled into the motel parking lot.  
It was completely dark outside so when Dean got out of his car he didn't notice his girlfriend sitting by the rusty jungle-gym.  
He walked into the motel room and less than a minute later he was standing outside the door again, his head looking quickly from side to side. I could see in the dim light provided by the bulb on the wall above him that he was worried.  
I felt bad for him, I knew how much he cared, he had always looked out for me just as much as he had his baby brother. I could only imagine how he reacted when Sam had told me I left and he had no clue where I went  
Dean must have seen my outline or something since he pulled a small flashlight out of the pocket of his dark brown, worn leather jacket and began to walk in my direction,  
"Kaiden? Is that you?" he asked as he blinded me with his flashlight,  
"Yes Dean." I answered, shielding my eyes, "Are you trying to burn out my retinas?"  
He apologized, lowered the light and took a seat beside me on the bench,  
"Did you have a nice smoke?" I inquired  
He looked at me and laughed,  
"Sammy told you about that, eh?" I nodded my head, "I was just kidding around, although I am worried about you."  
Okay. For the record, I hate it when people worry about me. No, I don't hate it. I despise it. It's ridiculous, they should go spend their time worrying about someone else. Because I can take care of myself, not that I demonstrated it that night, but whatever, back to what I was saying.  
I laughed,  
"Why are you worried about me?"  
He turned and looked at me, not that he could see much since the small town we were in no-where Mississippi had minimal street lights and that night was overcast, so there was no glow from the stars or the moon. I was partially glad that he couldn't see my face, cause I had been stressed about, I guess he noticed that but I was hoping that he hadn't noticed my lack of sleeping and seeing the stress, exhaustion and fear that I knew coated my face would not be a good thing, at least for me.  
He sighed, "Kay, you toss and turn in your sleep. You're crying out in the middle of the night. And that's only when you do sleep. Something's go you stressed and freaked out and you won't let me in enough to tell me what's going on. And-" he broke off and took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair, "And that scares he hell out of me Kaiden."  
I guess he didn't need to see my face to read my emotions, and I also guess he had noticed the few things I didn't want him to.  
But I'm sorry, he wouldn't have been sleeping all too well if he had been having dreams about his brother being all psycho-killer. Actually, at that point I hadn't had one for a day or two, but that's besides the point.  
Sometimes I wish Dean and Sam would just turn down the observant and go all macho and ignore my feelings. But of course they didn't, because I have bad karma, or whatever, and anything I want to happen, the opposite will almost certainly come around. It's like the story of my life: bad karma and obnoxious comments.  
I had been staring off into space in my usual fashion, so when I snapped back into reality, I realized that Dean had been talking to entire time I was zoned out. I felt kind of bad, the guy was sharing his feelings with me, which I know is really hard for him and I hadn't heard a word that had come out of his mouth. I decided to take the safe route, nod my head and say,  
"Yea Dean, okay."  
He stared at me for a few moments, almost in shock,  
"Okay? Seriously?"  
I was beginning to wish I had been paying attention to what he had been saying, I really wanted to know what I had just agreed to


	7. Chapter 7

Dean grabbed my hand and stood up, pulling me with him and we began walking back to the motel room. He unlocked the door and we stepped inside to see Sam sitting in the exact same spot he had been in when I left the room,  
"Find her?" he inquired without even looking up from his computer. I could swear he was glued to that thing,  
"Yea Sam, he found me. He had to hog tie me first. But you know how Dean is; he'll do anything to get 'er done."  
Dean shoved me gently, took a seat on the empty bed and began pulling off his shoes. He turned to Sam who hadn't even bothered to do anything in response to my comment other than roll his eyes,  
"Did you find anything?" He asked  
"Nah man, I'm telling you there's absolutely nothing. What'd she say?"  
They were talking about me like I wasn't even there, which annoyed me,  
"Hello? Guys, I'm standing right here, if you could, I dunno, include me in the conversation, that'd be good."  
Dean leaned back on the bed and got comfortable,  
"I explained this all to you outside, we've been trying to find something, anything, worth hunting in Kentucky, but I'm telling you there's a big steamy pile of nothing. Not even a missing person. Now I know you've been having these dreams and stuff but maybe this one was just a flash in the pan. And, well you already said yes to the vacation and-"  
I stood there in shock, _did he just say vacation?_ I thought to myself, _he's always been the one saying that there's always something to hunt and no time to rest,_  
"Vacation?" I demanded, "Tell me you are joking."  
Dean groaned and covered his eyes with his hands and then sat up,  
"I knew you weren't listening!" he exclaimed, "You got this glazed look on your face and then you were like 'Okay Dean.' You didn't hear a word I said did you?"  
I gave him a sheepish smile,  
"I uh heard some of it. Could you give me a refresher?"  
And he did, but with a very irritated tone to his voice, I think I was really getting under his skin, how amusing. So apparently he and Sam had been digging ever since I told them that we needed to go to Kentucky and apparently there were no red flags. So they figured that we should take a 'vacation' aka we do what we want but if word of a hunt gets to us then we'll go kill it just like normal. Dean promised me that if absolutely anything comes up in Kentucky and it looks like our kind of thing than he said he would drop everything and go out there, which was nice of him.  
I was fully ready to say yes to this vacation when Sam jumped in,  
"Kaiden you need a rest. I don't care what you think and Dean isn't going to say anything to you because he wants in your pants, but it's true and there is no good reason for you to keep going on like this. You are upset about your dad dieing which is perfectly normal and you're not acknowledging it. If you keep all these emotions bottled up it's going to kill you."  
He took a deep breath to continue talking when I cut him off quickly, I was not in the mood for this speech,  
"Yea, guys. Fine. We'll go on this vacation. Happy?"  
Sam smiled at me and closed his lap top,  
"Very happy."  
Dean gave me his signature grin and pulled me down onto the bed, I resisted slightly. Something about what Sam had said stuck with me. I mean obviously he wanted to have sex eventually, but I was afraid that if we did I would end up being one of his flings. _Well with flings he would usually dumped her by now_. That thought reassured me and when Dean pulled me into his arms I let myself completely relax into him. I doubted that if he wanted us to be just some fling that he would be content with just sleeping together, instead of you know, _sleeping together._  
I quickly fell into a dreamless sleep, which was exactly what I needed.

"Dude!" Dean groaned, "If we're on a vacation it means we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to start driving anywhere!"  
I shoved my head under the pillow as an attempt to drown out the noise of Sam and Dean talking,  
"Come on you two, for our vacation we're headed to Wisconsin at that's a fair ways away so we'd better get going." Sam said in a voice much too chipper for the time it was,  
"Sam. We can get up early tomorrow, I promise you. But today I am sleeping in. You go grab some food and when you get back we'll be up."  
He grumbled his response, I heard him grab the keys and walk out the door. After Sam left I couldn't fall back asleep much to my dismay, so I got up, took and shower and got dressed. I was waiting for Sam to return and Dean to wake up so I grabbed my Ipod and turned on some much needed dance music. I'm not saying I don't love classic rock, I do. But there's only so much AC/DC and Metallica a girl can take before she needs some really bad pop music to dance around to. So I was in the dirty motel room dancing around to Mmmbop by Hanson when Dean decided to wake up. Yes, perfect timing. I know.  
What's more embarrassing is the fact that I didn't even notice that he wasn't still sleeping until he scared the crap out of me by grabbing my shoulders from behind. I let out a blood curdling scream in terror. Have I mentioned that I don't like to be snuck up on? I whipped around to see Dean laughing uncontrollably.  
I put my hands on my hips and watched him without amusement,  
"Find something funny Dean?" I questioned  
"You- you should have seen your face." He managed though his laughter  
I was unimpressed. I wanted Sam to come back, having Dean here laughing at me was not my idea of fun. I punched his shoulder,  
"Shut up Dean. You surprised me."  
Dean wiped a laughter-induced tear from his eye and walked, still chuckling, into the bathroom and turned on the shower,  
"Hey dancing queen," he called from the bathroom, "where's Sammy?"  
I slumped back onto the bed I had been sleeping in earlier, this whole vacation thing was still bothering me a bit and I wasn't all too happy about Dean seeing me dance, I mean the idea is that a girl doesn't let her boyfriend see her acting like a moron. Why is my life so unfair?

I laid on the bed for a little while until Sam returned with breakfast and coffee. I looked up when the youngest Winchester walked into the room,  
"Hey Sam. How's my favorite Winchester?"  
"Favorite Winchester?" he questioned as he put the take out containers on the table near the motel door, he paused and laughed, "What did Dean do?"  
I got up from the bed I had been laying on and walked over to the food on the table, I started looking through the containers,  
"He made fun of me. And then grabbed me from behind. Not in that order though."  
Sam laughed and handed me the Styrofoam container filled with all my favorites, waffles, bacon, and pickles  
"That's Dean alright. Get's the girl who's too good for him and then pisses her off."  
That made me smile, nothing cheers me up quite like an ego boost and some good food. I sat down at on one of the chairs at the table and began eating my breakfast,  
"So why are we going to Wisconsin?" I asked through a mouth full of waffles. Hey no one ever said I was classy,  
"We have some friends there, they own a Roadhouse. It's been a while since we've seen them so I figured it would be a good place to start our vacation."  
I nodded my head as Dean came out of the bathroom and plopped down into the seat next to mine wearing only a towel slung around his hips.  
I glared at him,  
"You know that whole not wearing anything but a towel is not going to fix the fact that you piss me off. I hate you."  
Dean turned to his brother and put on a very serious face,  
"You know Sammy, the way she fawns over me, it's kind of embarrassing. The whole clingy thing is a real turn-off."  
Sam laughed and choked on the toast he had been chewing on,  
"Oh, you guys are such comedians." I said with sarcasm dripping from my voice,  
Dean leaned in and kissed me softly. Okay so I kissed the guy back, I may have been mad at him but he is just so good looking. Could you resist that? Probably not.  
Back to what I was saying, we packed up all our things and threw them into the Impala, I hopped into the front seat and propped my feet up on the dashboard. A normal life is so not for me, hunting and killing demons, road tripping all the time. That's the life that was meant for me. Driving from Mississippi to Wisconsin wouldn't be too bad with Dean behind the wheel, three days max and that's only if we take it easy on the way.  
I was interested to meet friends of the Winchesters, they generally hung around very interesting people. I needed some friends of my own so I kind of hoped that they would end up being as close to me as they are to the boys.  
Dean slid into the drivers seat with ease and Sam clambered into the backseat and sat uncomfortably with his knees akwardly close to his ears. I laughed,  
"Comfortable Sammy?" Dean asked as he looked at him in the rear view mirror,  
"Shut up. I wouldn't be so crammed in here if Kaiden didn't bring so much stuff with her." Sam grumbled, he rested his head against the car window and closed his eyes.  
I smiled at Sam and shrugged,  
"That's what you get for roadtripping with a girl Sammy."  
I heard him mumble something about not calling him Sammy and then turned to Dean,  
"So Dean, how long have you been going to this Roadhouse?"  
Dean shrugged,  
"Only since my dad died, there was a message on his answering machine. We found Ellen, that's the woman who left the message, and we found out a ton we didn't know about hunting and other hunters."  
We continued our conversation as Dean drove for a few minutes before my eyes grew heavy and I rested my head against the back of the seat. I figured I would ask more questions after a short nap.  
My last thought before I fell asleep with Dean's arm wrapped around my waist was, _I hope I don't drool when I sleep._


	8. Chapter 8

The next few days were just a blur of bad take out food and uncomfortable sleeping conditions, but finally we arrived at the Roadhouse.  
I stepped out of the car and looked around. To be honest the building that we had pulled up in front of didn't look like much. And there wasn't much to see for miles around, not exactly a prime location. But I guess hunters would like not being in the middle of all the hustle and bustle for once, and since Sam and Dean told me it was a popular hang out for them, the locale made sense.  
"Dude!" I heard Dean exclaim, "Look what you did to my car?!"  
"Man, I barely even kissed that other car while I was backing up." Sam defended himself,  
"Look at that bumper. Look at it, you are going to hand scrub it."  
I laughed as Dean stomped off in a huff, watching him freak out about his car was quality entertainment. I loved the guy, but he was a bit of a ninny about his car.  
Sam squatted beside the car and had his nose an inch from the bumper, he turned to me,  
"He's freaking out about nothing, there's not even a mark, just a bit of dirt. Dean's just being a tool."  
He rubbed the bumper of the Impala with the sleeve of his red and blue flannel shirt before standing up and walking into the Roadhouse. I followed him in and saw Dean standing with a short blonde girl who was practically hanging off him,  
"So Dean, it's been a while since I've seen you. How are you?"  
She made me want to vomit. What, was she going to feel up his bicep and ask him if he had been working out?  
Dean spotted me at the doorway, stepped away from the girl and gave me a smile. The girl on the other hand glared at me, I thought laser beams would shoot out of her eyes and stab me in the heart. Her look was _that_ intense  
I walked past Dean and held out my hand to the girl,  
"I'm Kaiden. Dean's girlfriend." I said with a meaningful look. I was hoping that she would try something stupid, cause she annoyed the hell out of me and slapping her sounded like a good time to me.  
"Jo" she introduced herself with ice in her voice. She hated me, not that it bothered me. The girl had a thing for Dean, which was obvious enough. But I promised myself that I wouldn't do anything or say anything unless she made a move.  
There was a long silence in which I turned to Dean, _say something_! I urged him in my mind. But being as perceptive as he is, Dean didn't say a word.  
We continued to stand there in silence until an older woman, with sandy-blonde hair walked in. She greeted me with a warm smile and held out her hand,  
"Hey, I'm Ellen. This is my daughter Jo. I own the Roadhouse." She introduced herself,  
I liked this woman. I knew for a fact she had never been a hussy like her daughter. Maybe Jo got it from her dad.  
I smiled at Ellen,  
"Well thanks for letting us stay here for a while. The guys are convinced we are in need of some R and R."  
Ellen let out a chuckle, "From what Sam and Dean said, you need to be tied down before you will rest."  
"Sam and Dean said that, huh?" I said as I turned and shot daggers at the guys with my eyes. Metaphorically speaking of course.  
The Winchester boys stood there looking uncomfortable but Ellen didn't notice,  
"Can I get you guys a drink?" she questioned  
Dean and Sam accepted a beer gratefully. I think their dire need for a beer was a result of spending a lot of time with each other. I on the other hand politely asked for a club soda with lime and took a seat on one of the stools at the bar.  
We spent most of the afternoon talking and mostly just lounging around, which was nice. Dean and I were laying on the bed in the backroom that Ellen had set us up in,  
"So why have you guys been calling Ellen and giving her the 411 on me?" I questioned,  
"Every once in a while Sam feels like need for giving Ellen an update. She's a family friend and has been good to us."  
I nodded my head. I was irked that they were passing around information about me though,   
"Next time could you warn me though, instead of just telling strangers information about me?"  
Dean sat up, with an offended look on his face,  
"Ellen isn't a stranger."  
"Dean, she might not be a stranger to you. But she is to me."  
I wasn't sure what Dean didn't understand, I wasn't trying to bitch at him. I was just sharing my feelings about the situation. So sue me.   
"Kaiden why are you being like this?" his voice rising in anger.  
I couldn't believe it! He was pissed at me and I didn't do a damned thing, for once. But I had never been one to back down from a fight when they presented themselves,  
"Dean, I just thought you respected me more than to do something like that. You know I like to keep things about me close to the heart." My voice was rising much like his,  
we continued to argue for another few minutes. I had no clue why he was being so defensive, and that frustrated me even more. As a result I continued to fight right back."  
"Maybe Kaiden, you are just freaking out because deep down you know we shouldn't be dating anyways."  
My jaw went slack and immediately tears fought to escape from my eyes,  
"Yea Dean." I said my voice barely a whisper, "Maybe your right."  
I saw his face change from an expression of anger to one of horror and regret. In hindsight, I figure he didn't mean to say what he did. But when he said it, I was heartbroken and I tried to protect myself by pushing him away.  
Dean walked out of my rooms and I watched his back with a sinking heart. He closed the door quietly behind him and left me alone with my tears. So much for my happy vacation.


	9. Chapter 9

I stayed in the same spot for a long time, I mostly just sat on the bed that Dean and I had been sharing and cried while sharpening the first knife I had even been given. That makes me sound a little crazy, but what can you do?  
Anyways I was drifting off to sleep lying on the hard mattress when I heard a window in the next room shatter. _Well that was strange_, I thought as I went to investigate. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have headed towards the dangerous sound without someone as backup, but at the time I was heartbroken and was acting extremely irrationally.  
I stood outside the door, and listened for any more noise. I could hear the crunching sound of shoes on broken glass.  
So being the super huntress I was, I opened the door to the room slowly, slipping inside, I closed the door behind me and looked around. The moonlight was spilling in through the broken window but there were still too many shadows in the room for me to make out much of anything. _There is no way I imagined that_, I mentally reassured myself.  
I shrugged and made to leave the room when I heard that shoes on glass sound again and whipped around to see a man standing in the middle of the room, staring at me.   
"Hello Kaiden." He said in a voice that I immediately recognized from both my memory and my dreams,  
I moved towards the door, this was so completely and totally unfair! I mean I had just broken up with my boyfriend and now some bad shit was going down. This was so my life, nothing could ever be nice and normal. If I wasn't feeling a fight coming on, I would have pouted and pitied myself,  
"Brian, what the hell are you…" the words coming out of my mouth trailed off when my big brother stepped more into the centre of the room, I could see his face in more detail, the part that stood out the most was in fact his yellow eyes. _Oh shit_.  
As terrified as I normally would have been in this situation, I was shockingly calm. I think I was still in a bad mood about Dean and I breaking up and that whole deal. I mean seriously, what was with that?  
Sorry, I went way off topic. Back to what I was saying,  
"So. That yellow-eyed thing isn't exactly in this season." I said as I edged towards the door. But the demon possessing my brother was too quick for me and he grabbed my arms in a grip like iron. I knew it was going to bruise for sure,  
"I've been waiting for this for a while Kaiden." He said with my brother's voice, although it wasn't actually his voice, well not really, "I've been saving you for the very last."  
I was about to ask 'the very last of what?' because I'm quizzical like that, when I was suddenly lifted into the air and slammed against the opposite wall of which I had been edging towards. Have you ever been thrown across a room into a paneled wooden wall? Well if you haven't, then I hope you never have to experience that, since it is not exactly the most comfortable thing, I'd say it's pretty much the furthest thing from comfortable.  
I started pulling myself up off the ground, cursing myself for leaving the knife I had been sharpening on the bed, and reached for the knife that was usually strapped to my ankle, I realized with a sinking heart that I had taken the knife off from it's usual place when I was trying to get comfortable in the car. _Dammit!_ I thought to myself. Like honestly, the only time I had used that knife was to cut toast when a waitress had forgot to give me a butter-knife.  
The demon possessing my brother advanced on me quickly and before I know it, was lifting me up by my throat. Out of nowhere he placed me down and stepped back from me. Freaky eh?  
So the demon/my brother just stood there for a moment and looked at me. Out of nowhere I felt like I had been hit by a train and then all of a sudden I was walking towards the door and, believe me, it wasn't actually me doing the walking. Contrary to popular belief, being possessed by a psycho demon, yea it blows.  
I walked into the main room of the bar and it felt oddly like I was a spectator, a strange feeling. Sam and Dean turned to me from where I they were sitting around Sam's computer at a lone table. It was still fairly early so there weren't any other people in the bar, for which I was thankful.  
I walked over to the bar where Jo was chopping limes with a small carving knife, I calmly removed the knife from her hand and walked to the table to where the Winchesters were sitting.   
"Interesting to see you two again." I said in a voice that wasn't even close to my own, "Although I had kind of hoped that you would have died when that transport truck."  
Sam and Dean looked at me in absolute shock, I guess that they noticed the fact that my eyes were yellow and my voice was completely different from my usual one.  
"What do you want?" Dean said standing up from his chair quickly, anger flashing in his eyes,  
"Oh don't worry about your girlfriend." I chuckled, "She's in here kicking and screaming. Oh but she's pissed at you."  
Sam took a step towards me when I brought the carving knife up to my jugular,   
"Don't take another step towards me, or the girl dies."   
"What do you want?" Dean repeated his question,  
"I'm here to finish something I started a long time ago." I took a seat on one of the chairs, "It's more become a vengeful hobby, but ever since you," I pointed the knife briefly at Dean, "decided to kill my only children, it's been more of a sport to see how fast I can kill everyone you've ever cared for. Remember Cassie?"  
Dean took a step towards me,  
"What did you do to her?" he demanded,  
"Oh I didn't do anything," I said in an amused tone, "but some vampires sure ate well that night."  
I stood up from the chair, and began slowly making small incisions across my right arm. I sure was glad I couldn't feel anything then because they were bleeding like hell and looked like they would hurt like a mother.  
Dean lunged for the knife,  
"Don't you dare hurt her or I swear to god."  
I chuckled and dragged the knife across my wrist, creating a particularly deep gouge,  
"I'm going to kill her Dean, and you're going to stand there and watch. And after I'm done with her, I'm going to kill every person that you ever cared for."  
Sam quickly reached for their father's journal which was on the table that they had vacated, I could feel the demon's anger as I watched my hand whip the knife at him as hard as I could and saw as it wedge it's self into his forearm. Oh I was going to have to apologize to him a ton for that one.  
I felt water being dumped over myself and all of a sudden I could hear myself screaming,  
"Holy water you evil son of a bitch." Came Ellen's voice from behind me, I turned to see her holding a bucket full of water over my head,  
Ellen continued to pour the holy water over my head as Sam read a ritual I quickly recognized as an exorcism. I felt my body begin to shake and then all of a sudden a huge cloud of something that looked like smoke poured out of my mouth and then the next thing I knew I was laying in a heap on the floor.   
There was a moment while I heard everyone breathing hard until Dean and Sam were helping me off the ground and onto a chair.  
I didn't know at the time, but I had a concussion so it was the reason that my eyes were sliding closed and I head a throbbing headache, this was due to the fact that I had been thrown across a room. Serious bummer,  
"Kaiden? Come on Kaiden, look at me."   
I worked really hard to focus my eyes on Dean who was kneeling in front of me, dabbing the wounds on my arm with a cloth.  
"Get Brian," I managed through my teeth that were clenched against the pain of my wounds,  
"Who?" I heard Sam question, and I saw him putting pressure to the wound on his arm,  
"Her brother." He answered before I could open my mouth.  
I explained that he was in the bedroom, but didn't get a chance to tell them about what had happened before because Sam cut me off and told me I needed rest,   
"Sam," I stopped Dean briefly from leading me away to my room,  
"Yea?" he questioned,  
"I'm really and truly sorry about your arm."  
Sam assured me it was okay since it wasn't his shooting arm and Dean walked me into the room we had been sitting in earlier and sat me on the bed,  
"Are you sure you're okay?" he questioned, "you've got some pretty nasty bruises on your neck and above your eye."  
I pushed his hands away,  
"Dean, I'll be fine."  
He seemed to remember at that moment the argument we had earlier and walked over to our bags that were still sitting untouched in the corner of the room, he picked them up and walked out of the room.  
I ignored the protest of my muscles that were already starting to become stiff and followed him into the bar where I saw Sam standing with a bandage around his hurt arm and his bag in the other hand,  
"What's going on?" I demanded, I usually would have been at least a little more friendly, but I had been thrown across a room by a demon possessing my long lost brother and then while that same demon was possessing me I sliced my own arm open. Those kinds of things just don't make a girl feel like giggling and smiling. And on top of that, where was my brother? I asked Sam that question in a voice which was slightly more personable than the one I had used to ask my previous question,  
"He wasn't in there." He said  
My jaw dropped open,  
"What do you mean he wasn't there?" I said in a horrified voice,  
"I mean the only thing that was there when I went in was a broken window and the glass from it all over the floor. Nothing else I swear."   
Well that made no sense, my brother had clearly been unconscious when the demon had possessed me, the guy was just a regular civilian so possession takes a lot of you. I'd know, the first time I was possessed it was by the spirit of this crazy old lady that my dad and I had been trying to exorsise and I was exausted for days after. But then again if I woke up laying on the floor of some strange place and could hear a fight going on down the hall then I would book it too. I decided to let the problem of my missing brother go and asked another question, it seemed like I was full of them that night,  
"Are we going somewhere?"  
Dean turned to face me completely and stared me in the eye, "Kaiden the demon knew you were here. And the chances are that he's going to try to kill you again. We need to get out of here."  
Ellen spoke from where she was watching Jo mop up the holy water that she had dumped all over me,  
"There's no reason you guys couldn't stay here, we can keep you safe."   
Sam gave her a small smile,  
"Thanks for the offer, but it's a family thing and there's no way we could put your that kind of danger."  
Jo put down the mop and walked over to Dean, placing a hand on his arm, I almost punched her right there. He and I might have been broken up, but I still really disliked her,  
"Dean, you can't leave. It's not safe." I suppressed a gag. Was this girl for real?  
Dean assured her that we could take care of ourselves. We said goodbye and headed towards the car.  
I was opening the backseat door when Dean grabbed my good arm (thankfully) and turned me around,  
"Kaiden. I'm sorry. I was just feeling stressed out and I took it out on you." Dean, apologizing for something he did? What was I in an alternate universe?  
I kissed him and told him that it was okay. Man it was good to have him back as my boyfriend. We were only broken up for a couple hours and it sucked.  
I slid into the backseat and I heard Sam chuckle,  
"Guys, why can't we ever do anything, even a vacation, without someone being in mortal danger?"  
I laughed. It was so true. It kind of blew though. I shrugged off the thought and started reading one of the books Sam was forcing me to read. I think he enjoyed having someone around that read something other than comics.


	10. Chapter 10

We drove around for about a week after that, never staying in the same motel or spot two nights in a row incase someone, or something had found our trail and followed us there.  
Dean was sick of Sam trying to confront him about the demon so he put all of his energy into finding a hunt somewhere in the state we were in, since he didn't feel like driving for hours on end anymore,  
"Did you find something?" he asked with hope as he walked in the door of the motel room and set the breakfast and coffee he had gotten for the three of it on the table beside the bed Sam and I were sitting on,  
"Well we have something in Fort Dodge, Iowa." I answered.  
His smile was the same as a little boy who had been told he was going to the toy store. Sometimes I wondered if it was healthy how much Dean enjoyed the hunt but I brushed that thought aside and turned to Dean to give him the information he was obviously desperate for,  
"There's this house on," I looked at the papers in front of me, "Cedar Wood crescent, the house is like 200 years old and there have been weird things going on. Lots of accidents, and even a couple deaths, it's been pretty screwed up."  
Sam and I watched as Dean punched in air in excitement,  
"Oh I love an old-school haunting an ancient house."  
Sam informed his brother that he was the biggest hunting dork in the world.  
I watched them argue over who was the bigger loser out of the two of them and packed up my clothes, all of which had managed to get out of my duffle bag and spread all around the motel room in only one night, I honestly have no clue how stuff like that happens.  
It took about an hour for the guys to get their stuff together and loaded into the car, not long after that we were on the road and headed to Fort Dodge.  
Sam pulled out his lap top,  
"Well if I have time to kill, then I might as well look up any dirt about the area."  
"Why would you do that?" Dean questioned, "It's a straight up haunting, we just exorcise the son of a bitch."  
"Do you know what happened the last time we jumped into something we didn't know about one hundred percent?"  
"I do." I piped up from the backseat, "I was the one who had to drag your half-conscious ass into the motel room. _It's just cut and dry_." I said, mimicking his voice in the last part.  
Dean informed me that I was _hilarious,_  
I chose not to respond to his comment and instead put in the headphones to my mp3 player and turned on one of my favorite songs, "Patience" by Take That.  
Now let me explain something to you about this song. It's no ordinary song, oh no. It's more addictive than cocaine. Not that I would know, not ever having done cocaine myself. But I assume. The song was so ridiculously catchy that I couldn't resist the urge to sing along. Although in hindsight I should have thought about the fact that my boyfriend and his younger brother were sitting only a foot away,  
"Just hold me close, inside your arms. Don't be too hard on my emotions. Cause I-I-I-I-I-I-I, need tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime, my heart is numb, has no feeling, so while I'm still healing. Just trrryyyyyyyyyy and I have a little patience."  
As my song ended I came back into the real world and felt the car slow to a stop, we had pulled over to the side of the road. Dean turned around very slowly and looked at me, his eyes wide,  
"Are you having some kind of epileptic fit?" he inquired  
I felt my face turned bright red and mumbled out something intelligent along the lines of,  
"I- uh – you. Shut up."  
I looked over to Sam for some support but he looked like he was putting in a great deal of effort not to burst out laughing. Well this was awesome, I just _adore_ being the laughing stock of the car.  
Dean continued to stare at me for a few more moments until he turned around, apparently it was too much of a mental strain for him to believe that his girlfriend could like classic rock AND pop.  
The Impala pulled off the shoulder off the road and onto the main stretch of highway and we continued the joy that is road tripping.  
The definition of road trip you ask? Well, road trip is just a fancy word for me contemplating the deeper meanings of life and listening to music. This is going on while Sam and Dean bicker about various things, ranging from "No dude, buck shots are so much better than rounds" to "Dean, if you try to set me up with another bar slut I will have to kill you"  
See. If you were jealous for one second and felt the urge to go on long drives with two guys, please, for my sake, re-think and step away from the car.

Fortunately the drive only took about 7 or 8 hours, and by Sam and Dean standards that's unheard of. We arrived at the pleasantly revolting "Pine Wood Lodge" motel, I look around me, there was no pine, and no lodges for that matter. _Who the hell names these things?_ I wistfully thought about fancy hotels and rooms that didn't smell faintly of spilt rum, I snapped back to reality and tried to pretend I was actually listening to what Sam was saying to me about the history of the house. I was exhausted, I hadn't slept very well, and for the first time in a long time it wasn't because of one of my dreams, Dean had been tossing and turning all night. And me being the compassionate girlfriend I am, just laid their annoyed about all the sleep I was missing out on. Now don't get me wrong, I was worried about Dean, for the first couple hours and even briefly considered waking him, but then I figured I would scare the crap out of him and he would try to kill me in the dark…again.  
The motel room lived up to my very low standards, the beds were covered in a yellow-green blanket and there were empty beer cans littering the table off to the side of the room,  
"Have I died and gone to hell?" I thought aloud  
Dean came behind me and squeezed my shoulders in understanding, he knew that every once in a while my girly urge to sleep in a nice comfy bed needed to be bitch-slapped into submission. Being a hunter and craving order was the biggest contradiction there ever was, hunters are known for being slobs, and believe me I'd know, I live with two of them. Sam's not as bad as Dean is; actually he's practically immaculate compared to his brother. Which brings up the question, why am I attracted to the slob?  
Sam and Dean immediately started going through the duffle bag that Sam had brought into the room full of an assortment of things, everything from knives to shot guns to exorcism rituals from numerous religions. The guys were ready for a fight but I, being me, had something to say,  
"Um, aren't you guys forgetting something? They turned and looked at me, both with blank expressions on their faces. I sighed,  
"We can't just break down the front door and tell them we want to bust their ghosts. We need to talk to them, have you heard of it? Verbal communication?"  
Dean sighed and tossed the shot gun he had been holding in his hands back onto the bed in defeat,  
"This gig would be so much easier if we didn't have to deal with people."  
I opened my mouth to point something out to him, but I was spared the effort when Sam piped up,   
"Dean isn't the whole reason we do this because of the people?"  
He shrugged,  
"Yea, I guess. But don't tell me that it wouldn't be easier if we could kick some evil spirit ass and not have to lie about it first. So what's the deal with this place?"  
I flopped down on the bed that wasn't littered with weapons and let Sam explain,  
"It's a pretty old building, so it's not exactly surprising that there's a haunting. It's a Bed and Breakfast; apparently it's always been unusual, lots of accidents and even a couple deaths. It sounded like our kind of thing."  
I rolled over so I wasn't laying face first on the bed,  
"You boys better shake out the wrinkles in your suits, and find your IDs."  
The guys dug out their suits from where they were at the very bottom of their duffle bags Sam changed quickly and quietly, while Dean on the other hand didn't miss a chance to complain about his stupid "money suit." While I waited for them to finish getting ready I went through my small box of fake IDs, it was more than necessary to have a collection of them when you're working a job that involves getting into people's houses and such.  
Dean walked out of the bathroom, his suit only slightly wrinkled, and stopped in his tracks, he let out a low whistle,   
"Woman, you look _good. _"  
He walked over to me, pulled me into his arms and began kissing me thoroughly. I guess he approved of my outfit; I was wearing a formfitting black pinstripe suit with a baby blue silk camisole.  
Just as Dean was progressing the kissing to, well more than kissing, Sam walked out of the bathroom, stopped and rolled his eyes,  
"Kaiden, I kind of look at you like a little sister, so if you could not go at it with my brother while I'm here. That'd be good."  
I laughed, "Sorry Sam, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."  
"But I sure did." Dean said as he pulled me back in for another kiss.  
Sam took a seat on the end of his bed and started putting on his shoes, he looked at me like we was seeing what I was wearing for the first time,  
"Are you wearing that incase you need to seduce the owner of the B and B?"  
I looked down at myself in horror; I didn't look like a slut! I quickly got over Sam's jab and chucked a pillow at him and stuck my tongue out, very mature, I know,  
"Not Sam. That wasn't the plan. And besides, the hotel owner is a woman. Not exactly my type, in case you haven't noticed."  
Sam was still chuckling to himself as we went out to the car; I gave him a shove and hopped into the passenger's seat where he was planning on sitting.  
Dean watched this all with a huge smile on his face  
The Bed and Breakfast was only a couple miles from where we were staying so it took us under twenty minutes before we were parked in front of the big old house,  
I shuddered,  
"That place is creepy as hell."  
Dean pulled a small wooden box out of the glove compartment, pulled out two IDs and handed one to Sam. I grabbed my own ID from my purse that was sitting on the floor of the car. I tugged Dean's card out of his hand,  
"Hello Agent Simmons." I said with a smile as I handed it back to him. I loved that Dean felt the need to make all his fake ID cards have classic rock references.  
We made our way up the front walk and into the house, I looked briefly at the sign that said "Fort Dodge Bed and Breakfast" and then followed Sam and Dean into the building.  
There was a man sitting at the front desk watching the basketball game. He was about mid forties, wearing jeans and an old, stained t-shirt, he heard us walk and in and looked up,  
"What can I do for you?" he asked, then he saw me and smiled, "I can think of a lot of things I can do for you."  
I managed to suppress my gag reflexes and instead smiled politely at him and asked,  
"Is there a Mrs. Mosley here?" I asked, looking down at the name of the owner on the paper in my hand,  
the man shook his head, "Nah my sister's taken some time to get away. Lotta weird stuff been happening. I'm running the place while she's gone and I can help you in any way you want."  
Wow, this guy seriously wasn't giving up. It was ridiculous, I almost felt bad for him since he honestly thought he had a chance. I guess he didn't get the memo that twenty three year-old girls like me don't go out with forty something men with dirty clothes on.  
Dean who was clearly unimpressed with this guy's advances on his girlfriends started doing the talking so perverted hotel man couldn't try anything else,  
"Well Mr…?"  
The man wasn't smiling the same way as he was when he was talking to me but he went a long with the questions,  
"Mr. Corr."  
"Well Mr. Corr," Dean continued and showed him his badge, "I'm Agent Simmons, and we'd like to ask you a couple questions about the events that have occurred here."  
The man shrugged, "I've only been here for a couple of them, but sure, go ahead."  
Sam leaned against the front desk and showed Mr. Corr his badge,  
"Could you tell us anything about the victims or the accidents."  
"Well, they've all been girls. That I know for sure, and the accidents were all different. Some of them fell down the stairs, others were found in the bathtub, one was even found with her head in the toilet, terrible stuff. That's all I know"  
I felt a shiver run down my spine. Whoever or whatever what messing around here meant serious business,  
"Thank you for your cooperation Mr. Corr." I said, "Would you mind if we had a look around? Just to be thorough."  
We got the okay and I began looking around the first floor while Dean and Sam searched the upstairs. There was nothing out of the ordinary; everything was pretty typical bed and breakfast décor, well except for one vase with some carvings into it. I picked it up and turned to Mr. Corr, who had asked me to call him Ted, and asked,   
"Where did you get this?"  
He shrugged, "It was here when my sister bought the place, up in the attic. Ugly as hell I think."  
Sam and Dean were soon done upstairs and came back to the main floor,  
"It's clean." Dean mumbled into my ear, as the two brothers walked towards the door.  
I turned to face Ted,   
"Well thank you for all your help. It was greatly appreciated."  
He took a couple steps towards me so there was barely any space between us, he ran his hand down my arm,  
"If there is anything I can do. I mean anything, just call me. You know where I'll be."  
"Yea, uh. Thanks."  
Needless to say I got out of there a fast as I could. I would never wear this suit again; the results of it were just too horrifying.  
Dean was seething,  
"The guy like petted you! I should have punched his face in right there."  
I put my hand over his where it was resting on the seat of the car,  
"It's a good thing that you didn't. We might need him for more information." is  
Sam snorted,  
"Yea I'm sure he had load of information we could use."  
I sighed and leaned back against the seat,  
"If there are no signs of a spirit like we had originally thought, what could it be? Cursed land?"  
"It's a possibility," Sam responded, "I'll check the history of the land when we get back to the motel."  
For the rest of the drive we discussed different things that could be going on, the only thing that stumped us was why it was all women.

We arrived back in the motel and I flopped down on the hard mattress,  
"Ow!" I yelled and jumped off the bed like it was on fire,  
"What is it?" Dean said, his voice full of concern.  
I pointed to the bed where you could clearly see a spring sticking through the sheets,  
"The bed mauled me! And I think it ripped my shirt. Bummer, that was my last clean shirt."  
A few milliseconds later I was being smacked in the face with something soft,  
"What the fu-" I realized at that point that it was a t-shirt, Dean's t-shirt, "What do you want me to do your laundry?"  
He shrugged, "You need a shirt. You can borrow one of mine."  
I smiled at him; I loved this guy, although I hadn't told him. I had a feeling that he would completely freak out if I told him and run in the other direction.  
I gave myself a mental shake and walked into the bathroom to change. I may have been twenty three years old but I was still really uncomfortable about my body, especially now that I had more than my share of scars from hunts gone bad. Not that I thought Dean would have freaked out since I knew he had a couple himself, like the one on his shoulder from when some weirdo rednecks had stabbed him with a searing hot fire poker.  
I walked out of the bathroom and sat down at the table where Dean and Sam were seated, talking about possibilities of what could be happening,  
"I think it's a Djinn." I said while there was a lull in the conversation,  
Dean gave me a blank stare, "A what-what?"  
Sam rolled his eyes,  
"A Djinn, it translates to genie. The Muslims believed that they were real beings, with the ability to be good and evil. It's said that they are invisible to humans but they can see us. Which is logical, since "jinn" means concealment or invisibility." He turned to me, "Did I get everything?"  
I smiled,  
"Pretty much. They can possess humans in the sense that they can persuade humans to do things and they can posses them in the sense of demonic possession." I stopped and thought back to all the texts on Arabic mythology, "The really bad-ass ones are called Marids. There was this one vase with some interesting carvings, I couldn't figure out what they were at the time. But they were Arabic; it's all making sense now."  
Dean took all this information in,  
"And you think it's one of these Djinn things?" I nodded my head, and a smile spread across Dean's face, "Kay, I think you've been spending too much time around Sammy here, you're turning into a geek girl. It's scary."  
I punched his arm and stood up from where I was sitting,   
"I don't know about you two, but I say we go there tonight and figure out what's going on. I know a phrase that will protect us from it."  
Dean grinned his thousand watt smile, "Hell, you know I'm in."  
Sam nodded his head to tell us that he was also 'in' and we all agreed to go talk to Ted again tonight at 9.  
Dean informed us that he needed a shower and headed in the direction of the bathroom. Sam looked at his watch and figured we needed lunch and went to go get some. All of a sudden I was standing along, I sighed,   
"Might as well read up on the details of the Djinns." I muttered to myself.  
I hadn't realized how exhausted I was until I felt my eyelids drooping and thought, _I'll just rest my eyes for a minute. _I was asleep with my face in an old mythology book within two minutes. The next then I knew Dean was lifting me up into his arms and walking me over to the bed. I did notice that he placed me on the bed that didn't have springs sticking out of it, I was grateful for that. Dean lay down on the bed beside me and pulled me into the curve of his body, whispering in my ear,  
"You know you talk in your sleep?"  
I turned towards him, my face only inches from his,   
"Really? What do I say?"  
He ran his hand down my cheek,   
"You said you loved me."  
I felt my heart stop, my mind was racing in blind panic, _oh god he is totally going to dump me now, _  
"Oh." I answered intelligently with a voice many octaves higher than usual, "And?"  
Dean sighed and had an expression on his face that told me he had something to say but didn't know how to say it _This is it_, I thought, _I am so totally dumped. _  
"Okay, I've never said this to anyone so here goes." He took a deep breath, "I love you Kaiden."  
My mouth dropped open, I had imagined this happening a million and a half times, but I couldn't imagine in my head how it felt to have someone you honestly didn't know how to live without tell you they loved you.  
"I love you too Dean." I whispered as our mouths inched closer to each other, we kissed softly for a long time until I rested my head on his chest, which I honestly just noticed, was bare, and listened to his heart beat.  
Normally I would have been completely and totally repulsed by this sentimental moment, but it's just nice to be with someone you love and not be thinking about demons coming to kill you or ancient mythological creatures you have to kill.  
I drifted off to sleep laying with my head laying on him and wasn't woken until Sam returned, empty handed,  
"Where's the food?" I mumbled when I heard the door open and close,  
"There's been another death." Sam said in a breathless voice, it sounded like he had run from somewhere.  
I was immediately wide awake,  
"We need to go. Now." Dean said as he shrugged on a shirt and his heavy brown leather jacket. I threw on my worn out black leather jacket and the three of us headed quickly out to the Impala.  
As Dean drove Sam filled us in on what had happened. One of the maids had been found dead in the attic, apparently having died from strangulation.  
We pulled to a stop in front of the old house much like we had earlier this afternoon, except this time we jumped out of the car as fast as we could and ran up to the house.  
We were all dressed in our regular clothes, but luckily I had remembered to grab our IDs on the way out.  
As I entered the Bed and Breakfast I noticed Ted standing by the front desk with a woman in a navy blue police uniform asking him questions. He rubbed his face in frustration,  
"I'm telling you, I have no clue what happened to her!"  
Dean stepped forward and flashed the police officer his trademark heart-melting smile,  
"Hello Officer, I'm Agent Simmons. These are my partners Agents Summers and Agent McKee. We have been working an ongoing investigation on this place. We're just going to look around to see if the killer left any evidence."  
The officer who was obviously in awe of Dean, just nodded and smiled a smile that reminded me of a fourteen year old with her first serious crush.  
As soon as we were out of earshot of both Ted and the officer Sam whispered,  
"You two take the attic, and I'll take the upper floor. Okay?"  
We all nodded and headed in our respective directions. The stairs that lead up to the attic were narrow and extremely steep, I was terrified of falling.  
We took different sides of the attic and began searching. I had gone through a bunch of boxes and looked through an old wardrobe for some clue as to why the Djinn was at the house. I heard footsteps behind me,  
"Find anything Dean?" I asked, turning around to face him  
there was something strange about his expression that I couldn't quite pin down,  
"Oh yea, I found something alright."  
Before I knew what I was happening he lunged at me and knocked me down, wrapping his hands around my throat. He was much larger than me and considerably stronger there was nothing I could do. As darkness crept into the edges of my vision I thought to myself, _So much for love._


	11. Chapter 11

Well all I have to say is thank god for Sam. Well that's not all I have to say, but quiet a large part of it.  
I was losing consciousness when Sam came walking up the stairs, he saw Dean trying to choke me to death and immediately knew what was going on. He pulled the slip of paper that I had given him that had the phrase to repel the Djinn, and read the Arabic saying. Dean pretty much flew backwards off of me and slammed, face first, against the worn out wooden floor of the attic. Sam rushed over to my side, I was struggling to not pass out but I could feel my consciousness slipping away, I finally gave up and let the darkness take over.

I woke up being carried down a flight of stairs, I assumed it was Dean's arms carrying me as they usually were, but when I looked up, I was looking at Sam's face,  
"Sam?" I said, my voice was gravely and I was finding it a little hard to breathe.  
Either Sam wasn't listening or he didn't feel the need to respond to what I had said, but he didn't say anything until he was helping me into the car. I saw Dean sitting in the front seat and when I tried to catch his eye it seemed like he was trying to avoid making eye contact at all cost. I noticed Dean had a large bruise forming on his right cheek,  
"You good Dean?" I asked, I knew how little fun it was to be possessed by anything and to be honest the fact that he wasn't saying anything was freaking me out.  
He mumbled that he was fine and continued staring out the window and not looking at me. Sam slid into the driver's seat and started driving back to the motel.  
We pulled into the motel parking lot and Dean immediately jumped out of the car and went inside the room, Sam helped me out of the car, even though I shrugged his hands off and informed him that I wasn't in need of his help.  
We got inside the room and I lay down on the bed, I wondered why my life was so complicated. Most girls my age were thinking about babies and marriage. Me on the other hand, I was thinking about repelling and killing psycho evil ancient Arabic creature. I mean, what the hell? And what is with my luck? My boyfriend finally tells me he loves me and now he's not even looking at me. Oh yes, my life is fantastic.  
Sorry, I've distracted myself with complaining, which I am very good at. Anyways Dean had wandered into the bathroom and I heard the shower turn on, I didn't blame him for wanting to clean up, the attic was really dirty and both he and I were covered from head to toe in dust, but I had a feeling that Dean wasn't showering because he felt the need to be clean, I was pretty damned sure that he was avoiding me.  
Sam was looking at me expectantly,  
"What?"  
Sam rolled his eyes, I guess he had been talking to me and since I seem to be unable to pay attention to anything other than my own very strange and moderately twisted thoughts, he was pretty annoyed,  
"I said, are you sure you're okay. You're neck is looking pretty bad."  
I brought my fingers up to my neck and immediately felt slightly swollen and very sore bruised skin. _Dammit! _I thought, _just in case my life wasn't complicated enough, now I look like a victim of abuse._ I might not look like it, due to the whole being short and having that cutesy blonde thing going on, but I can take care of myself. And when people try to help me when I don't need it, well it pisses me off.  
I sighed,  
"Yea Sam, I think it'll be fine. We've gotta figure out a way to kill that Djinn son of a bitch."  
"Dean and I convinced Ted to get out of dodge for a couple days. There's no way we're going back into that house tonight."  
"We are going back tonight. That thing could kill someone else. I'm not letting that happen." Came Dean's voice from by the bathroom door, I had just noticed he had come out of the bathroom, "I'm going to kill that bastard."  
"Dean-" I started, but he just waved me off, mumbled something about going to get some food and walked out the door of the motel.  
I slumped forward in the chair I was sitting, my chin resting on my hands,  
"Sam, what is going on with him?" I said mostly into my hands. I was determined not to cry but Dean was kind of starting to freak me out. Having him acting so distant made me wonder if something was seriously wrong. He usually made jokes to cover up his emotions, but this was different, he was flat out avoiding me.  
Sam sighed,  
"I think he feels bad about what happened."  
I nodded my head, yea that made sense, and sounded very much like Dean,  
"Should I just let him chill out, or should I confront him about it?"  
Sam stood up and walked over to the small fridge in the corner of the room, pulling out a bottle of water,  
"Kaiden. Talk to him. You know he won't come out and share anything unless he's seriously prodded. I'll say something to him if you want."  
I told him that would be good, grabbed my duffle bag and walked into the bathroom. I was still covered in attic dust and grime that I wanted to remove from my skin desperately. When I had gotten out of the shower and found a pair of boxers and one of Dean's t-shirts, I heard Dean come back into the room. I could have gone back out of the bathroom but Sam said that he was going to talk to Dean and I figured it would be best if I wasn't here hovering while they did talk. I began brushing my hair but stood close enough to the door so that I could hear their conversation,  
"-freaking her out. You need to talk to her. Tell her what's going on." Came Sam's voice from the other side of the door  
Dean's voice followed in a much less calm tone,  
"Don't you get it?! If you hadn't have come up there I would have killed her!"  
"It wasn't you Dean! You know that, it was the Djinn!" Sam's voice was losing all the calm that it previously had,  
"I can't protect her. I love her and I can't do anything to protect her. Just like I can't protect you Sammy."  
I couldn't just stand in the bathroom listening to their conversation anymore. I put my brush down on the sink and walked into the main room, trying to stop my hands from shaking. Hearing Dean's words had scared me down to the bone. Dean had always been my rock even while my father had been gone, and now he seemed to be so much more human. He put so much responsibility on himself, it was only a matter of time before he cracked under the weight of it all,  
"I don't need you to protect me Dean, I just need to you be there."  
Both Sam and Dean's heads whipped around to look at me. I gave Sam a meaningful look, he grabbed his coat and headed out the door, he got the message.  
Dean sat down heavily on the edge of the bed he was standing in front of, he looked so defeated, with his head in his hands,  
"I can't lose you. Not like a lost my mom and dad." My heart broke at the sound of his voice, it was so tired,  
"I know" I whispered and I gently stroked his cheek, I could tell that he hadn't shaved in a while since there was a fair amount of stubble growing over his strong jaw and cheeks.  
He looked up at me, his eyes full of tears that threatened dangerously to spill over. As I watched him struggle with his emotions I felt my own tears slide out of my eyes and down my cheeks  
"I promise you I'll always be here, even when you wish I'd just go away."  
He laughed at that,  
"This hunt is screwing everything up. I almost killed you."  
Dean pulled me into a tight hug, my cheek rested against his flannel covered chest.  
I knew what happened earlier had seriously rattled him, but I was determined to be the comic relief, no stewing in guilt for my boyfriend,  
"Yea well, I was planning on killing you. But you beat me to the punch, literally. Hasn't anyone ever told you that you always should let the lady go first?"  
I felt a chuckle rumble through is strong body, he released me from the hug and ran and hand through his already messy hair,  
"Shit, this Genie's badass, eh?"  
It was my turn to laugh,  
"It's not a genie Dean. It's a Djinn, and yea, it's pretty badass."  
He shrugged,  
"Same thing."  
I smiled and then yawned, I was exhausted. I looked over at the clock and it read 1:23am. Well that explained the being tired.  
Dean noticed my yawn,  
"It's late, you should probably get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow. That is if mother Sam lets us do any hunting." We both climbed into bed, he pulled he covers over us and turned off the light. He wrapped his arms around me, "Sometimes I wonder which one of us is the big brother."  
I let myself melt into his body and fell asleep with a smile, finally something was going right. At least, as right as it could when you professionally hunt demons.


	12. Chapter 12

I woke up the next morning with a start as I heard breaking glass and fell out of the bed, landing on the hard floor,  
"Owwww." I whined, I looked up and saw Sam standing by the table looking sheepish,  
"Sorry. I dropped a cup."  
"Smooth Sam. Smooth." I mumbled mostly to myself as I got untangled from the blankets and stood up off the floor, "Where's Dean?" I questioned,  
Sam looked up from where he was picking shards of glass up off the floor,  
"Went out to get some caffeine and then we're going to figure out what to do about his damn Djinn."  
I nodded my head, coffee was just what I wanted. And plus beating the Djinn into a bloody pulp also sounded very appealing,  
"Sounds good Sammy."  
He shot me a look, which I chose to ignore. So what if he hated me calling him Sammy? I was in a good mood and no brooding Sam was going to bring me down.  
Dean returned carrying a brown takeout bag and a tray of coffee. I took the Styrofoam cup he handed to me, took a sip and sighed,  
"That's why I keep you around."  
He pulled me into his arms, careful not to spill my coffee,  
" I can think of a couple other reason's you'd want me around."  
I laughed,  
"Oh and what reasons would those be?"  
Dean opened his mouth but before he could get his words out Sam interrupted him,  
"I don't want to know these things! Could you please have this conversation when I'm not here?!"  
Dean sniggered,  
"Calm down Sammy. We promise we won't go at it when you're still in the room. Well, as long as you leave soon."  
I punched Dean in the ribs and sat in one of the chairs around the table, continuing to drink my coffee. Dean tossed an object wrapped in wax paper at me,  
I opened it and saw it contained an everything bagel, it was cute that he remembered my favorite food. Not that it was a difficult task,  
but Dean could barely remember where he was a large percentage of the time, so I didn't take any loving gesture for granted,  
"Thanks."  
He smiled and me and told me,  
"No problem babe."  
Babe? I mentally questioned, he never called me any of those pet names. That was weird. I decided to let it slide and instead focused on the bruise that had fully formed on Dean's right cheek,  
"How's the face?" I inquired.  
He turned to me and gave me his famous thousand watt smile,  
"Hot. As it usually is."  
I rolled my eyes,  
"I mean the bruise you reject."  
Sam choked on his coffee and some came out of his nose, effectively spraying Dean with it. Apparently Sam found the way I treated his brother amusing, I'd been told that in all of Dean's relationships,  
especially the ones that lasted only one night,  
the girls treated him like some kind of god.  
_Maybe that's why the guy has such a massive ego_. I thought to myself. I had no problem taking him down a notch or two.  
Dean informed me that his face was fine and he asked me, with guilt in his voice, how my neck was feeling,  
"It's good. It honestly looks worse than it is."  
Okay. It was lie. My neck felt like it was on fire and breathing and swallowing were in the category of agony. But I couldn't tell him that, not when he was obviously beating himself up over it.  
I think Dean's sensor that detected any moments when someone wanted to have a serious conversation started beeping, because as soon as I went to confront him about his obvious guilt he said,  
"Well I'm going to get up shut eye. When I'm up, we'll talk about this genie bastard." He laid on the bed,  
"It's Djinn you special Ed student!" Sam said as he finished picking up the shards of glass that littered the floor around the table  
"Whatever." Dean mumbled as he closed his eyes and rolled over onto his stomach.  
I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in,  
"Why I date that guy I have no idea." I said, mostly to myself.  
Sam laughed,  
"Are you kidding me? You're perfect for each other. One day you'll have very…blonde haired green eyed babies."  
I rolled my eyes and stood up from the chair, I grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from my duffle bag and walked into the bathroom.  
I reemerged wearing my jogging clothes and sat down on the bed, pulling on my running shoes,  
"Where you going Kaiden?" Sam asked from behind his computer,  
"Run!" I called over my shoulder as I went out the door.

It had been too long since I had been out for a good run and had been able to seriously clear my thoughts like I needed. I thought about everything from that night when Dean and Sam came back into my life and my dad died,  
to the night when my brother broke into the roadhouse and I was damned close to killing both myself and everyone else there.  
I ran for about 5 kilometers before I slowed to a walk and leaned over to catch my breath. How had Dean and Sam known to come to the forest that night?  
I was surprised that it had taken me this long to realize that there was something off about that, there was no way that they would have known to come there just in time for them to save me.  
Instead of continuing my run like I had planned on, I turned on my heal and sprinted the entire 5 kilometers back to the motel as fast as I possibly could. There were questions I wanted answered.  
I reached the motel, pulled out my key and swung the door open. Dean jumped half a foot off the bed as the door slammed into the wall and Sam nearly dropped the coffee he was holding,  
"How did you know?" I asked, gasping for air,  
"What?" Dean asked pulling himself together after the scare I had given him  
I repeated this question, this time more clearly since I was starting to get my breath back,  
"I said, how did you know?" At their looks of confusion I elaborated, "How did you known to come to the forest that night?"  
Sam and Dean exchanged glances, I knew they were trying to urge the other to speak so that they didn't start talking at the same time with different stories. Normally I would have found this brotherly thing cute, but I was in no mood for games,  
"Spit it out." I said with an edge to my voice. Dean stood up from the bed and shrugged,  
"It was good timing, that's all. Coincidence."  
Sam turned away from Dean and ran a hand through his hair. I knew if I was going to get the truth from anyone it would be Sam with is ever guilty conscious,  
"Sam?"  
He looked desperately from me to Dean, then sank down onto the edge of the bed closest to the bathroom,  
"We can't lie to her Dean."  
"I'm not lying to her. What I said is the truth." Dean's tone was steady but I could hear the warning in his voice. He was warning Sam not to spill the beans, and I was pissed,  
"God dammit Dean! You are lying to me, and I swear to god if you don't tell me the truth right now I am leaving here to find the truth myself, and I wouldn't count on me coming back."  
Dean was quickly pacing the room, he ran a hand through his hair,  
"Fine. Sam, tell her."  
Sam looked up at me from where he was sitting on the bed,  
"Kaiden, I had dreams about that night in the forest. And in my dreams, you were the one that died, not your dad."

I stood there in shock, I knew that Sam had freaky dreams like I did, but he had never had one that related to me, well not that he had told me about at least,

"So you came to help out? That doesn't make sense. You didn't show up until after the werewolf had attacked."

"No, we called your dad first." Dean said from where he was now leaning against the motel door, as if trying to tell me that I wasn't leaving, "He said he'd make sure nothing happened to you. But he wanted to be certain nothing bad went down. We were only a state over, so we came to help out."  
I felt nauseous, it was a good thing that I had already digested the food I had ate for breakfast, or I had a feeling that it would have been all over the already not so clean motel carpeted floor.  
I honestly couldn't believe it, if Sam hadn't have had those dreams then my dad would have still been alive.  
It really was my fault that my dad had died. Over the time since the attack I had convinced myself that there was nothing I could do to save my father, it had been a random coincidence.  
But it was my fault, I lived and he died.  
Tears burned my eyes but I refused to cry. I nodded my head as acknowledgement of what they said and walked into the bathroom.  
I turned the shower on full blast and stepped in with my clothes on,  
I just sat there letting the water run over me, eventually the hot water turned to cold and I still didn't move.  
I heard Dean knock on the door but I didn't say anything. He continued knocking for a few minutes before he just picked the lock and let himself in.  
I was a state, I was shaking uncontrollably from the freezing cold water, I could see that my fingers and legs were blue so I figured the rest of me was as well,  
"Jesus, Kaiden." He muttered to himself as he wrapped his arms around me and lifted my petite frame from the spray of icy water. Dean grabbed the towel off the rack and blanketed it around me, trying to warm my shaking body,  
"Y-you should h-h-have just let m-me stay in t-there." I said through chattering teeth,  
"Stop it Kaiden. Just cut it out." He said in a harsh voice, "You have been punishing yourself mentally since the second your dad died and now you're stepping it up to physical punishment. This has got to stop. It'll kill you."  
I unwrapped his arms from around me and stood up off the floor,  
"I think we have more important things to deal with right now Dean."  
He looked at me in shock,  
"More important than you ending up dead because you can't forgive yourself for something that wasn't even your fault." He was angry, I could tell that much. But I was angry at him as well so I had no interest in doing something to appease him,  
"We have to kill his Djinn." I said in a firm voice, "It will keep killing people unless we stop it."  
Dean shook his head,  
"Nuh-uh. No way in hell are you going anywhere."  
I walked to him until we stood toe to toe, staring each other down,  
"I am going whether you want me to or not. Either I'm doing this along or you two can come and help. It really doesn't make any difference to me."  
I could see a battle going on behind Dean's eyes. On one hand he wanted to tie me to one of the chairs in the room so that he could make sure I didn't go anywhere and have anything, but on the other he knew I would eventually untie myself and kick his ass for doing something so stupid. He knew that if they went with me it was the best way for him to try to protect me. He sighed,  
"Fine. Get changed and then we'll go."  
I suppressed a smile. I walked over to my bag and grabbed a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt. As I changed I thought about how weird of a hunt this was. Before when I used to hunt with my dad it was always easy, we'd research and then kill the son of a bitch. But with the Winchesters there always ended up being so many more twists and turns, maybe my dad just picked the easier hunts, I had no clue.  
I laced up my favorite pair of combat boots and walked towards the door where Dean handed me a pistol. I looked at him,  
"We're just gonna shot it?"  
"Yupp, it is just like us but invisible. We can ventilate it and then it's down for the count."  
I nodded my head and followed him and Sam to the Impala.

I was off in my own thoughts for a long while and before I knew it, we were standing in the attic of the house that the Djinn was living in.  
We waited for a while before there was any sign of it even being up there, but eventually we heard rustling coming from the east corner of the house. Dean shot in the direction and ended up stumbling backwards, his gun skittering across the attic floorI rushed to steady Dean, I heard the bang of a gun being fired and felt Dean's body jerk backwards. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw the gun, just floating in mid-air. I threw Dean to the floor and saw that he had been hit in the right shoulder. Before I had a chance to do anything more than that I heard three bangs and felt like I was being hit by a bus,  
"Kaiden!" I heard Sam yell.  
There was agony all over my body. I collapsed onto the floor beside where Dean was laying.  
The last thing I saw was Sam firing his gun in the direction of where the Djinn was and I heard an unearthly scream. After that my eyes rolled back into my head and I lost consciousness.


	13. Chapter 13

I woke up in a fog, I was moving and had no clue what was going on, my entire body felt numb,  
"Kaiden?" Dean's voice cut through my confused thoughts,  
I groaned and heard him sigh,  
"Thank God."  
I opened my eyes and saw that I was laying in the back seat of the Impala, my head resting on Dean's lap.  
He looked exhausted and worried as hell,  
"Dean?" I managed, "What the hell is going on?"  
I went to sit up and for some reason I couldn't move. Panic surged through my body, but nothing I did would make me sit up or make either my arms or legs move.  
_What the f is going on?_ I thought, my mind racing to find reason. In all my efforts I had managed only to wiggle slightly,  
"Kaiden, stay still." He said, his voice had more than just the exhaustion and worry I had noticed before, he was in pain,  
"How's our girl doin'?" I heard a voice, Sam's voice, question from the front seat,  
"She's doin' good. Just hurry."  
Sam glanced at Dean,  
"And how are you holding up?"  
"The only thing that matters is getting Kaiden to the hospital."  
_Hospital? Why the hell are we going to the hospital?_  
All the events of earlier came crashing down on me.  
Dean. He'd been shot. No wonder he was in so much pain. But if he was injured then why was I the one resting on him?  
The numbness that had been blanketing my body lifted and I was left only with the pain of my wounds.  
I'd been hit too. I wasn't sure how many times though, once? Twice? I knew I had been shot in the stomach and chest, because that's were Dean was holding a bunched up t-shirts tightly to my skin.  
The pain was intensifying with every passing second. I fought hard to remain conscious. A moan escaped my lips and I felt Dean's body stiffen behind me,  
"Sammy, the shock's wearing off."  
"Hold on, we're under ten minutes out."  
He lifted the shirt from where he was pressing it against my wounds and got a good look at the damage.  
My energy started to drain and my eyelids drooped, but I battled to keep them open,  
"She's losing too much blood! Dammit! I can't stop the bleeding!"  
"I'm bleeding all over the leather." I said in attempt to make a joke.  
Dean brushed his hand over my forehead, wiping away the moisture that had began to gather there. I had begun sweating and shaking pretty much uncontrollably.  
"I'll give you a freebie, but only since you saved my life."  
I had that feeling of peace. One of those everything is going to be okay kind of moments, "I love you Dean."  
He stared at me in horror,  
"No. No, no, no. Kaiden. Hold on for me. Please. I know you're in a lot of pain but you can do this." Tears streaked down his face and I could feel them falling onto my skin, "You gotta' stay with me. Come on, who's gonna tell me when I'm being a prick?"  
I went to laugh but it came out only as a cough and a small amount off blood trickled from my mouth,  
"Keep talkin' to her Dean!" Sam commanded from the front seat and I could tell he had pressed down harder on the gas pedal since the car sped up considerably.  
My eyes began to slid shut and my body relaxed, Dean noticed and shook me,  
"Stay with me Kay." He glanced up at Sam, "Sammy you better have that gas pedal pressed right against the floor, 'cause this is the mother of your future nieces and nephews we're talkin' about."  
I went to say something but at that moment we pulled to a stop and Sam was lifting me out of the car and sprinting through a pair of automatic sliding doors.  
The pull on my eyelids was becoming too strong for me to hold on much longer,  
"I need a doctor!" I heard Sam yell, "My sister-in-law's been shot!"  
I smiled softly at the idea of being Dean's wife before my eyes unfocused and I slid out of consciousness


	14. Chapter 14

"I don't want you two to have unrealistic expectations. Kaiden should wake up soon but there was massive blood loss and one of the bullets even lodged her spine. I need you to realize that she might never walk again."  
There was pacing, I couldn't figure out who was moving and I didn't recognize the voice that had been speaking.  
"Listen Doc, she's tough as nails. She's going to walk again."  
"Let's hope." Said the person who the strange voice belonged to as I heard them leave the room.  
My eyes fluttered open and I saw Dean pacing in the room, his arm in a sling and Sam was sitting in one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs. He looked over at me,  
"Dean! She's awake!" Sam rushed to the door, "I'll get a doctor!"  
The eldest Winchester came quickly to my side and leaned over me. He had enough beard that told me it had been a long while since he had even touched a razor,  
"Hey Kaiden." He brushed the hair back from my forehead,  
"Hey" I whispered, my throat was raw from not being used.  
Sam returned with the doctor and he proceeded to shine a flashlight in my eyes and take my blood pressure. After he did that he poked and prodded some more until he was certain I was in working condition,  
"So, when do I get to go home?"  
The doctor sighed and put his stethoscope back around his neck,  
"Mrs. Sanderson, your injuries are very serious. We had to go in a remove all three of the bullets, one of which was lodged in your spine. I've said this to your husband already, you were in a coma for two weeks, we want to make sure there are not underlying injuries that haven't presented themselves yet, and we need to keep you around for observation, just to make sure that there is no permanent damage to your spine."  
I nodded my head, I figured there was no point in arguing with the doctor. Sam and Dean on the other hand were a completely different story. The doctor walked out of the room and left the three of us,  
"Let's shag ass guys!"  
I swung my legs over the bed and slid down onto the ground. But instead of walking out of the hospital like I had planned on doing, my legs gave out and I fell, Sam caught me, Dean couldn't with his arm in a sling, and placed me back on the hospital bed,  
"There's no way you're going anywhere. We've had to watch you lay unconscious for weeks, now we're making sure you're one hundred percent okay before you set a toe outside this hospital. Got it?" Dean said in a dangerously low voice, I nodded my head, "Good. I'm going to get coffee."  
Dean left the room and I was left staring at Sam in shock,  
"What's got his panties in such a twist?"  
Sam shrugged,  
"He was truly terrified that you would never wake up. I think he's trying to deal with his emotions, and you know Dean, feelings freak him out 99 percent of the time."  
I nodded my head. I could only imagine how I would feel if it had been Dean in the coma. I would have gone crazy with worry and probably would have ended up acting like a bitch to keep my fears in check.  
I turned to Sam,  
"So. Mrs. Sanderson eh?"  
He laughed,  
"Yea, sorry we didn't have time to warn you before he came back in. It was just the name on the insurance we gave them."

I didn't do much for the next couple of hours, the only thing that made me happy was that Sam brought me a pair of pajamas so I wouldn't have to wear that hideous hospital gown anymore.  
Dean didn't come back until much later, when the sun had already set.  
He stood in the doorway of my room,  
"Come to yell at me some more?"  
He ran his hands through his hair and walked into the room, sitting on the side of my bed,  
"I didn't mean to freak out on you. I just, I honestly didn't know if you would wake up. And if you hadn't, it would have been my fault."  
I shook my head,  
"Dean you didn't shoot me."  
"Yea, but I didn't protect you. I just fell to the ground like a pansy ass."  
I looked at him with complete shock,  
"Dean, you had a bullet in your shoulder!" He looked away from me. I placed my hand on his chin and gently turned his face towards mine. I kissed him gently and pulled him into a tight embrace, "What happened to me wasn't your fault."  
I yawned at that moment so wide that it practically unhinged my jaw. Dean ran his hand down my cheek,  
"You need some sleep."  
"That makes no sense. Wasn't I just asleep for two weeks?" I said through another yawn. I realized my argument was completely ridiculous and I allowed Dean to pull the covers over me.  
"Dean?" I asked,  
"Yea?"  
"Well, uh, you know how much hospitals scare the crap out of me. Would you by any chance stay with me tonight?" I slid over on the bed to make room for him,  
He took off his leather jacket, tossing it on the chair as he climbed onto the bed beside me and wrapped his good arm around me and slid his other arm out of the sling that was holding it.  
I was going to say something about how he should probably keep the sling on his arm, but we were having a nice moment so I thought better of it and kept my trap shut, for once.  
Now you might be thinking that I was just putting all that stuff out about being scared of hospitals just so that I could get a cuddle in with my boyfriend. But I can honestly say that they give me the wiggans, seriously, they're so clean, and dark, and there are lots of dying people soon to become spirits. Scary spirits, well some of them become scary. Sorry I'll stop babbling and get back to what I was saying,  
"Comfortable?" he murmured into my ear  
I snuggled closer into him,  
"Yea. Thanks. So doc says I can go home in a couple days. Good news."  
"He told me, don't push yourself though. Sam and I will be on the look out for a good hunt."  
We talking about different things for a little while until my exhaustion took me over and I fell asleep in Dean's arms.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's been commenting! Your reveiws + encouragement are much appreciated...R&R!

I woke up with a start, almost rolling off the bed. I had been resting on Dean and there was something in his pocket that was vibrating,  
"Dean." I said as I shook him, "Dean, wake up."  
He groaned and rubbed his eyes,  
"What?" he said, his voice heavy with sleep.  
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone, my cell phone,  
"Hey!" I said, "You've been holding out on me?"  
Dean handed the phone to me after looking at it briefly,  
"It's somebody named Aoife."  
Hearing the name of the girl who was my best friend and I hadn't seen for years, took be by surprise. Dean had butchered her name, pronouncing it, "Aey-oi-fee" instead of "Eh-fay" like it was supposed to be said, but I always called her Fay. She called me Kay, our names rhymed; it was cute, in an obnoxious kind of way.  
I corrected his mispronunciation before grabbing my phone and flipping it open to listen to my messages,  
"Hey Kay, I know, I know. Long time no walk. But, uh, Jason's been around lately, asking about you. He says that he just needs to talk to you and all, but I don't know. The guy's some serious trouble. So I was just calling you to give you the heads up. And, you know, if he calls you I don't think you should talk to him. Call me sometime; we need to get back in touch. Thanks, bye."  
I clicked my phone shut and looked at Dean, and Sam who had just walked into the room while I was listening to Fay's message,  
"I talked to the doctor." Sam said,  
"And?"  
"And, he said that all your tests came back clear. A few days turned out to only be one night."  
"I can leave?!"  
Sam nodded. I honestly would have jumped for joy if I still wasn't weak, but I did punch the air in excitement,  
"So, guys, where are we heading?"  
Sam shrugged and sank into the chair that sat beside my bed,  
"We only found one hunt worth checking out, but a friend of Helen's said she would take it since we didn't know how long you would have to stay here."  
I felt bad that I had held up Dean and Sam from a gig. They were some of the best hunters around the world and if I could choose anyone to save me it would be them. And they had, saved me that is,  
"Could we go to Nebraska for a couple days?"  
"What's in Nebraska?" Dean asked as he helped me out of the hospital bed and both brothers turned around while I pulled on jeans and a t-shirt,  
"Just something I need to take care of."  
Dean shrugged as a nurse came into the room with a wheelchair and she helped me sit. It took a little while for the registration nurse to get me the forms I needed to sign myself out. We walked to the Impala, Dean's arm around my waist helping to support my weight. I slid into the backseat, more than happy to be back in Dean's car,  
"Dear lord, it's good to be out of that jail."  
Sam turned around from where he was sitting in the passenger seat,  
"So where exactly in Nebraska are we going?"  
"Sidney."  
Sam pulled a road map out of the car's glove box and began searching the sheet for the small town that I had lived in for three years;  
I spend almost the first year of living there pretty much homeless. I was seventeen, my father and I had just had a falling out. I was too young to buy my own place so I stayed in shelters for almost a year before I became really good friends with Fay. She ended up finding out about my residence, or lack there of and she talked to her parents, who invited me to live with them. They became my family, I enjoyed the idea of having a mother figure and Fay's dad had a normal nine to five, suit and tie job, a nice change from what I was used to.

And Jason, well he was something I wanted to push from my mind completely. I had been dating him for over a year when he overhead Fay and me talking about what I had done with my father. She had found out about the hunting my accident and it had felt nice to tell someone the truth about what I had done.  
He pretty much went ballistic; he had always had underlying anger issues but for some reason this really sent him over the edge. I was still really not at my best due to my lack of self esteem during high school, I was afraid to leave him, and I figured things would just be better if I complied with what he wanted, said what he wanted to hear.  
I was wrong; he became getting exceedingly freer with his fists, and words. I quickly found that the emotional damage was far more permanent than the physical damage. I guess that eventually his words that I was worthless and I deserved what I got sunk in and I believed every syllable. He told me that I was crazy, that supernatural things didn't exist and I was delusional. One night he came home drunk and beat me so hard that I ended up in the hospital. My collar bone and jaw were broken along with three fractured ribs. It was after that I really started concentrating on my fighting.

While I was in the hospital, I called my father, it had been almost three years since I had talked to him. But when I told him what happened, he dropped everything he was doing and came to be with me. After that I started hunting again, as soon as I was released form the hospital I left town with my dad. I said goodbye to Fay and then booked it. I hadn't been with any guys after Jason, at least not until Dean. Being with Dean was amazing, he was a great boyfriend, but at the same time he scared the crap out of me. I knew that eventually he would want to you know, _be together_. But after Jason and what he had done, the idea of sex pretty much terrified me. Being hot and cold like I was probably freaked Dean out since I hadn't told him about Jason or the years in between when I had pretty much lived with Sam and Dean, to now, well I pretty much lived with them again, but under different circumstances.

It took us a day and a half to get to Sidney, Nebraska. It wouldn't have taken that long under normal circumstances, but both Dean and Sam were still worried about me. So we made out days shorter and they let me sleep in more. I liked the whole getting more shut eye thing, but I only wished I didn't have to get shot to earn it.  
We arrived in Sidney late Friday and got a motel room.  
I woke up the next morning I woke up with the sun in my eyes,  
"Ahh." I groaned and sat up, "It's burning my retinas."  
Dean stirred from where he was sleeping beside me,  
"What's the problem?" he questioned,  
"Nothing." I said as I stretched, "Just being blinded by the light."  
He sat up and began kissing all down my collar bone,  
"I'm supposed to be letting you take it easy, but oh well." He said between kisses.  
Since my thinking is so very unhelpful and inconvenient, just at that moment, an image of Jason popped into my head and I pulled away from Dean. Nothing kills the mood quite like mental pictures of old boyfriends, what's with that?  
I pulled away from Dean, not very smoothly I might add, and walked over to the bathroom,  
"I think. I just, uh. I just need a shower. So you stay here, and I'm going to be showering. Yes. Okay."  
Well after that little bit of poetry I closed the door and hopped into the shower. Thankfully when I walked back into the main room, Sam was standing in there talking to Dean. Thank god.  
Sam turned to me,  
"So what are we doing today?"  
"I figured we should go see my friend Fay. I haven't seen her in over two years."  
The guys agreed to my idea and around two p.m. we headed over to Fay's house.  
I had called her the night before, to say that me and "two friends" were coming to visit. It's a good thing I did call since she had a new address. Fay had informed me that she was now living with her husband and someone else, who she wouldn't tell me about.  
We pulled up in front of a nice two story, red-brick house. As I was walking up the front path, my hand in Dean's, it hit me that I would probably never have that. Both Dean and I were hunters, and I doubted he would ever want to get married and settle down, honestly, I wasn't even sure that Dean would want to marry _me_. I shook my head, woah, where had that come from? Fay tells me she's married and I immediately start thinking about my own walk down the isle, what was that about?  
Before I knew it, I was ringing the doorbell and Fay was opening the door.  
She looked almost the same as she had when I had lived with her. She had cut her red hair off short so now it fell just bout her jaw. Other than that she looked like the same old Fay, with her sharp blue eyes and towering over me at 5'9,  
"Kay!" she exclaimed as she pulled me in for a hug, "You look amazing!"  
"Thanks," I said as we released each other from the guy, "You too."  
She invited us into the house and ushered us into the kitchen and we all took seats around the big oak kitchen table. Fay leaned back in her chair,  
"So, Kay. Are you going to introduce me or what?"  
I laughed,  
"This is Dean and Sam Winchester. I've told you about them before. We've known each other since we were kids."  
She nodded her head,  
"Yea, you've told me. Your dads were friends, right?" she asked with a knowing raise of her eyebrows. I said she was right, and just then a tall man with short black hair and an olive complexion came into the kitchen carrying a baby. The man passed the baby to Fay,  
"Kay, Dean, Sam, this is my husband, George." We all shook hands with George and he took a seat at the table,  
"And this," Fay said, "Is Isabelle, our little girl."  
Well my jaw almost hit the table right then,  
"She's yours? You're a mother? You have a baby?"  
Fay laughed,  
"You look like you've seen a ghost."  
I heard a snort from Dean,  
"Hardly, she's more composed then."  
Sam started at Dean, his mouth open and I sat there wishing that I could take back his words for him. I mean sure, Fay might have known and been kosher about me being a hunter. But this George guy was a stranger to me and had no clue.  
"What he meant was that if I saw a ghost ever that I would be more put together. But ghosts aren't real. Of course."  
Well right then George started laughing. Yea, the guy must have thought we were absolutely and completely out of our minds. Fabulous.  
Fay smiled at me gently like I was a child that needed something explained to her nice and slowly,  
"Kay, George is a hunter. Just like you guys."  
Oh, well that made things less awkward,  
"Oh." Dean said, "Well that makes things less awkward."  
Honestly, that whole thing where he voices exactly what I'm thinking freaks the hell out of me. Seriously, sometimes I wonder which one of us in this relationship has weird mental powers.  
The guys started talking about hunting and different stuff that went along with it. Fay asked me if I wanted the grand tour of the house and I accepted, I wasn't in the mood for shop talk,  
"Fay, you're house is beautiful." I said after she had finished showing me around and we were sitting on her bed in the master bedroom. I looked over to where she was stretched out over the mattress and got a really good look at her, I noticed a small bump on her abdomen,  
"Fay, are you pregnant?"  
She sat up really quickly,  
"I was going to tell you a bit later. I didn't think I was showing that much."  
I sighed and flopped back onto the bed,  
"Our lives have sure changed haven't they?"  
"Yea. They really have. Who would've thought I would be a mother. Who knows, maybe you'll be next."  
I snorted,  
"I'm sure Dean would love the idea of having a little baby seat in the back of the Impala. We haven't even talked about anything like that, I think it's much too soon."  
"I get that. But you know, you won't be on the road and hunting for ever."  
I shrugged, I didn't really know what I would do when the day came for me to stop hunting. I preferred to not think about it.  
We stayed at Fay's house for a couple more hours and ate dinner before we headed back to the motel.  
We were sitting in the motel watching the Home and Garden network. Well I was watching the Home and Garden network, Sam and Dean were busy whining and complaining about how we should watch something that all three of us would like. I chose to turn a deaf ear to those comments and enjoyed watching people redecorate houses. About half way through Relocation, Relocation, Relocation, the best show in the history of ever, there was a knock at the door.  
I hopped off the bed and walked over to the door. I was irritated that I had to miss part of my show but there was no one else to answer the door since both Dean and Sam had fallen asleep during Sell This House, wimps.  
Anyways, so I swung open the door and it felt like the air had frozen in my lungs, Jason was standing in front of me.


	16. Chapter 16

Jason grabbed my arm in a grip that was painful and stumbled towards me, into the room,  
"Kaiden? Kaiden, I'm so glad I found you."  
I stared at him not able to breath and my mind was racing to find words,  
"J-Jason. What do you want from me?" I said, my voice a harsh whisper,  
"I need you to listen. He said I have to make you listen." He said with no attempt to keep his voice down, he was concentrated on me.  
Dean rolled over and opened his eyes, he saw Jason holding my arm and quickly jumped up from the bed,  
"Who the hell are you?"  
I looked from Dean, to Jason, searching my mind for a reason as to why Jason would be there. I knew this would be an opportune moment to tell Dean the truth about what had happened. But my heart was beating so fast and I was having trouble breathing, I could barely feel my arms and legs,  
"Leave Jason, now."  
He shook his head and took a step towards me. Dean must have heard the panic in my voice and seen the fear on my face. He walked towards Jason and wrenched his hand off from where it was wrapped around my forearm,  
"Get the hell off of her!"  
At the sound of Dean's yelling woke Sam from his deep sleep and he ended up standing behind me. He saw that my legs were wobbling and wrapped an arm around me to steady my shaking body.  
Dean was shaking too, but with rage, instead of the deepest kind of fear I was feeling. He grabbed Jason by the collar and swung his arm back to punch him,  
"Dean! Don't!"  
He turned to me, "Why not?"  
"He's not worth it. Just, just let him go. Jason, you better get out of here."  
Jason fixed me with a stare that was so intense it was unsettling,  
"He said I have to make you listen. And he said that if I couldn't make you listen, make you understand, then…"  
I looked at him in confusion,  
"Who said this to you?"  
"The man with the yellow eyes."  
Jason stepped towards me but Dean got to him before he could get to me and shoved him hard into the wood paneling of the motel wall,  
"Get. Out." He said through clenched teeth. He gripped Jason's shirt in my hands and shoved him as hard as he could through the door that was still wide open from when Jason had come in, "And if you come near her again I will kill you."  
Jason shot me one last desperate look; the guy was seriously disturbed,  
"I'll come back for you Kaiden." He said, and then walked away.  
I realized that Sam was supporting most of my weight and allowed him to walk me over to the bed he had been sleeping on. I sat down heavily on the bed and looked up at Dean, whose eyes were ramped with emotions,  
"Who the hell was that?"  
I was so tired, both because it was getting really late and because seeing Jason had drained all of my remaining energy. I wasn't in the mood to rehash painful memories, at least out loud,  
"Just an old boyfriend." I said hoping that he would drop the subject. It was just wishful thinking; I knew he wouldn't, especially after Jason had mentioned the "man with the yellow eyes." If I was him and there had been mention of the thing that had killed my mother, I wouldn't just let it go,  
"An old boyfriend that is clearly involved with the yellow eyed demon? And one that seemingly has no problem with laying his hands on you."  
Well I was pretty much ready burst into tears, honestly, before Dean and Sam had come back into the picture I had my emotions locked away nicely. But ever since my dad died and I became involved with Dean, it was like my tears were always on standby. It was honestly embarrassing; I didn't want Sam and Dean to think that I was some kind of blubbering freak.  
Sam saw the look on my face and stepped between where I was sitting and where Dean was standing staring at me,  
"Dean. We know the guy is coming back. And we know he is connected with the yellow eyed demon. We need to get Kaiden out of here."  
Dean nodded his head and then was quickly lost deep in his own thoughts. Sam was thinking logically about what needed to get done, he was the only one. Since both Dean and I were completely out of it,  
"Kaiden, do you think we could stay at your friend, Fay's house?"  
I shook my head,  
"I don't want to put her in danger. Besides, I haven't seen her for years; I don't want to suddenly push myself on her."  
Sam looked at me with a strange expression on his face,  
"You're her best friend. Believe me, she won't mind. Besides, George said that if there was anything we needed help with we shouldn't hesitate to ask."  
I nodded my head and stood up from the bed, my legs were still a little unsteady, but considerably better than they were before,  
"Let's go."  
It only took us a couple minutes to get our things together and we were sitting in the Impala. I stared out the window watching the street lights pass by in a blur. It was strange, it had been not time at all since I had been sitting in a hospital bed listening to Fay's message. And now I was in the middle of another mess revolving around Jason. The guy was poison. Plain and simple, there was nothing about him capable of regular human emotion and I had no clue what the hell I had ever seen in the guy.  
We pulled up to Fay's house and pretty soon we were standing in their front hall talking to her and George,  
"-so do you think its okay that we stay here for the night? Just until we figure something out." Sam said,  
Fay nodded vigorously,  
"Absolutely, stay as long as you want." She wrapped her arms around herself, "God Kay, if I had known that by calling you this would happen, I wouldn't have called. I'm so sorry."  
"Believe me; this is in no way your fault. I would have ended up back here eventually anyways. This way he won't be able to hurt anyone else."  
George wrapped an arm around Fay and brushed a tear away that had escaped from her eye. She shuddered,  
"You know, I still blame myself for what happened. If I hadn't insisted we talk about your hunting, then he would have never found out, and all of those horrible things would have never happened."  
I assured her that she shouldn't blame herself.   
Fay nodded her head and showed us to where we would be sleeping. The room Dean and I were sleeping in had walls the colour of a midnight sky and a massive bay window with a padded window seat. A queen sized bed was against the wall opposite the window; I sat down on the bed and let my body sink into the soft mattress. What I would have given just to sleep for a month,  
"So are you going to fill me in or am I going to have to pry the details from you?" Dean asked as he sat down on the bed beside me.  
I sighed and rubbed my tired eyes,  
"Jason was my boyfriend for quite a while. He ended up finding out about the hunting stuff and kind of lost it. He, well, he…"  
I couldn't say it, as much as I thought about what he had done in my head, I couldn't voice it, it was just too painful.  
I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I could to try to stop myself from crying. But no matter what I did the tears still seeped out from under my eyelids and ran down my cheeks.  
Dean pulled me towards him,  
"Shh," he said as a sob escaped from my mouth, "you don't have to say it. I promise you that he will never hurt you again."  
Tears dripped down off my chin and dropped onto the faded black t-shirt he had been sleeping before the whole ordeal had began.  
Dean leaned back into the array of pillows that Fay had put decoratively on the bed, Fay had always loved things that had no function but looked pretty, and I lay beside him with my head resting on his shoulder,  
"What do you think this means?" I asked, "Do you think the demon has got to Jason, Just like he did those other people? Do you think he'll try to kill me?"  
I felt, rather than heard, Dean Take a deep breath,  
"I don't know what the demon is planning. All I know is that I will kill him slowly if he steps within a ten mile radius of you again."  
"Thanks for being my protector." I mumbled as my exhaustion started to win the battle,  
"No problem." He answered with a smile in his voice,  
"But it only is a good thing if you don't get yourself killed. I like you enough to want to you stick around."  
He chuckled and said something that I couldn't quite hear since I was half asleep.  
Just before I let my need for rest completely overtake me I felt him drape his leather jacket over my body, I focused my ears and heard him mumble, mostly to himself,  
"God knows I can't do this without you Kaiden Trent."


	17. Chapter 17

I woke up the next morning and rolled over to find the bed empty beside me. A jolt of panic shot through my body, I sat up quickly and hopped of the bed.

I walked downstairs to see George, Dean and Sam standing in the kitchen with an assortment of weapons spread across the table. Everything from ninja stars (I'm honestly not sure where they got those from) to shot guns and machetes, it was all there.  
Fay was standing near the fridge talking to Isabelle, who was sitting happily in her highchair,

"Morning ya'll." I said as I walked completely into the kitchen, making my presence known.  
I received a 'good morning' from everyone and a kiss from Dean. Fay asked me if I wanted some breakfast and I began helping her to make bacon and eggs for everyone,

"He's been up all night." Fay whispered so the guys couldn't hear, "I went to feed Isabelle around three a.m. and he was in the living room, staring out the front window."

"He's worried." I whispered back, "Finding out about Jason wigged him out, but the connection with the yellow eyed demon is just too much."  
She made a face that told me she was trying to remember something,

"A demon with yellow eyes, don't they usually have black eyes?" realization dawned on her face, "Oh god, is this the demon that killed your mom?"  
I nodded my head and concentrated on cooking the bacon that was in front of me. I wasn't ready yet to think about what this meant for both me and everyone that I loved. I was worried that we had made a mistake by coming to Fay's, if the demon came after me, I didn't want to put anyone who couldn't protect themselves in the way. That meant Isabelle. Plus Fay was pregnant, and if anything happened to her or the baby I would never be able to forgive myself.  
Out of nowhere a blinding flash of pain shot through my head and I could barely control the agony. I heard myself scream through the pain and heard the frying pan crashing down on the tile floor before everything went dark

_Dean was unconscious, there was nothing I could do to wake him up and Sam was nowhere to be found. Jason was standing in front of me in the room I was in, I recognized the room, it was the bedroom that Dean and I had slept in the night before. There was a fire like pain shooting from my arm and I could see blood seeping through the sweater I was wearing. Jason kept repeating the same thing over and over again,  
"I'm sorry Kaiden. I'm sorry Kaiden." He was still saying it as he raised the knife that was in his hand, the blade was covered in blood, my blood._

I came into consciousness slowly and realized that I was still on the floor, but in Dean's arms. His face was inches from mind and I could see both Sam and Fay's faces in my peripheral vision, I could hear Isabelle crying in the background,

"Kaiden? Are you okay?" Dean asked me with worry,

"She's bleeding." Fay commented and we all looked down at my arm, which was covered in blood. Well this was just ridiculous. Dean had told me about Sam having visions during the day but I never in a million years thought I would be plagued with that ability.

Dean helped me off the floor and Fay said something about getting some bandages and scurried out of the kitchen.  
I got helped by both Dean and Sam to a seat at the kitchen table. Sam took a seat across the table from me while Dean just began to pace the length of the kitchen. Sam had always been better at asking the questions tactfully, while Dean just got frustrated and wanted the information at that instant. It wasn't Dean's fault he was impatient, it was just his nature and I got that,

"What did you see?" Sam asked gently as Fay wrapped my arm with the bandages and gauze that she had returned with,

"Dean was knocked out. Jason was there with a knife, I was in pain, he kept repeating the same thing."

"What did he say?" Dean asked, he had finally stopped pacing,

"He said that he was sorry, and then he brought up the knife."

"What did he do after that?" Sam inquired gently, he knew how much it sucked getting these dreams, well I guess they weren't really dreams anymore, they were visions. Great, I was now the freaky girl that could see into the future, not only while she was sleeping, but while she was awake and cooking breakfast as well. This was too fantastic for words,

"Nothing Sam, I woke up and I was back in the kitchen."

Fay had finished wrapping my arm so I stood up and started pacing the room in a very Dean-like fashion,

"Guys this is not good."  
Dean gave me a look,

"Thanks for that one, I figured you passing out and then waking up bleeding all over was a good sign."

I shook my head,

"No, I didn't mean the vision. Well I kind of did, whenever I get these dreams, or visions or whatever. It's always connected with the demon. And we know Jason is connected with it. This can only mean bad things. We can't stick around here, we're putting Fay and George in danger."  
George who had been standing against the wall holding a now whimpering Isabelle spoke up,

"We can handle ourselves fine. And there is no way we're letting you leave knowing the danger you're in. I'm a hunter, not some civilian, I can help you."

There was a battle waging inside of my head, part of me wanted to stay and accept the help from George that I knew we needed, but another part of me said that there was no way in hell that we should put them in danger and I should book it as fast as I could. The part of me that wanted to stay won out,

"Okay." I said, "What do you think we should do?"

"We can go to his house and see if anything is up there. Other than that, I don't know." Said Dean

I sighed and sat back down in the chair I had been sitting in before,

"What a morning." I mumbled, mostly to myself.

Later on that afternoon I sat on the window seat in the bedroom Dean and I were staying in, staring out the panes of glass.

I heard Dean walk into the room and moments later, felt his hands that were calloused from years of hunting massage my neck,

"You're scared." He stated,

I instantly denied it,

"No, I'm not."

_No Dean,_ I thought, _I believe the correct term is terrified._

Dean sat down in the window seat beside me and fixed me with a gaze so intense it made me uncomfortable,

"You're lying." He said, his gaze unwavering,

I stood up from the bed and began walking across the room, I changed my mind and spun around quickly to face him. It hadn't been Jason that had been truly bothering me,

"Dean we can never have a normal life."  
Well I could tell by his expression that what I had said had been the last thing he had expected to come out of my mouth,

"What?" he asked, taken aback,

"We'll never be able to just get married and have kids. Never."

The expression of shock didn't leave his face,

"Y-you want to have kids with me?"  
I had never in my life heard Dean Winchester stutter. He was always smoother than smooth. The guy with all the witty comments, he was a smart ass by nature. What I said really freaked him out and I wished I could take it back,

"Err," I said, "I was just putting out examples. It didn't mean anything, just saying what normal people would want."

He stood up from where he was sitting and walked towards me, with a grin on his face,

"You want to marry me." My mouth fell open and he pulled me into his arms, "You love me." He said in a teasing voice,

"Shut up." I said and I shoved him away from

He laughed and put a fake expression of hurt on his face,

"Looks like I'll have to return the ring then."

My mouth fell open once again. I would have had to stumble for words but just at that moment George knocked and came into the room, saving me from saying something that would undeniably be stupid.

"Whats up George?" I asked as he walked into the room, a serious expression on his face,

"I looked into trying to find Jason. I called where he works, they said he hasn't been around for weeks. His landlord said that he hasn't seen him in a while too."

I threw my hands up in frustration,

"So we just have to stay here like sitting ducks and wait for him to show?"

Dean shook his head,

"We'll wait for him. But I'll be ready to kick his ass."

I nodded my head and sat down on the window seat and closed my eyes,

"Well. If it's all the same to you guys, I'm going to close my eyes for a little while."

They both left the room, closing the door behind them.

I drifted off to sleep thinking that it would be a good way to kill time before Jason showed up, like he was bound to.

We didn't have to wait long, I woke up with my mouth and nose covered by a strong hand, and Jason's angry eyes staring down at me.


	18. Chapter 18

"You chose him over me?" Jason demanded in rage as he continued to cut off my supply of air.

I hit him as hard as I could on the inside of his elbow, forcing him to release the grip that he had over my nose and mouth.  
I sucked in some much needed air and bolted to the door, I was fast, but he was faster. He grabbed me around my waist and threw me back towards the window, where I collided with the seat I had been napping on only moments before,

"Jason," I wheezed, "it wasn't a matter of choosing him over you. You ended our relationship as soon as you put me in the hospital."

He shook his head and walked towards me, slowly, the anger that had previously masked his face had disappeared,

"He said that if I brought you to him, then you would realize that what we have is special."

I shook my head in disbelief, "Jason, we don't _have_ anything. We dated for a while, sure, but that was two years ago. You made sure that there was nothing left."

"No Kaiden. He promised me that if I talked to you, you would understand."

"Who? Who said this to you?"

"The man with the yellow eyes." He said quietly, his voice full of both admiration and fear,

"Jason you are out of your mind. I will never love you. Deal with it."

I realized a few seconds later that I shouldn't have been so flippant with him; I began walking towards the bedroom door when he wrapped his hand around my arm where it was cut from the vision. I cried out in pain as he continued to tighten his grip,

"You think that you can throw away what we have so easily?" He was furious, and completely out of control, "Do you think that you can give what we have away so that you can be that Dean guy's whore?"

My mouth hung open, "How do you know Dean's name?"

He gave me a humorless smile, "The man told me, he told me everything about you and Dean, and Sam. He told me how you got your father killed. Everything."

"You don't know a damned thing you son of a bitch." I growled,

Jason's hand completely and heavily down across my face. I yelled in hope that someone would come, and thankfully seconds later the door to the room swung open and Dean rushed in,

"I thought I told you to stay away from her!" he said as he ran towards us.

Out of nowhere Jason's eyes turned a bright yellow and Dean went flying across the room, hitting the wall and sinking to the floor, unconscious.  
Jason, or the yellow eyed demon, slammed the door shut from across the room and looked me in the eye,

"The pathetic shit really does want you back." He said with a sardonic smirk

I attempted to wrench my arm out of his grasp but failed miserably and just ended up staring into those yellow eyes full of so much hate,

"This really isn't about you." He said as casually as if we were old friends talking about the weather, "This is mostly about Dean."  
"What?" I asked, completely confused,

"He killed my children. I am going to tear him apart from the insides before he dies. I am going to kill every single person he has ever loved."

"And Jason, what was he in all of this?"

The demon possessing Jason shrugged, "He was just a puppet, a way to reel you in. Nothing hurts Dean quite like seeing you suffer, so I figured I would have some fun before I cut your throat."

He pulled a knife out of his jacket; it was the same knife that I had seen in my vision. I reacted quickly after seeing the weapon and rammed his face as hard as I possibly could with the point of my elbow.  
Jason's nose started gushing blood but the demon didn't even flinch, but boy was Jason going to feel that once the demon left him.

The door crashed open and both the demon and I were greeted with Sam pointing a shotgun at us, well mostly the demon. In his other hand he had a bag of rock salt

"Get the hell away from her." He said in a voice so steady it was actually pretty scary, I made a mental note to never seriously piss of Sammy.

The demon laughed but quieted as Sam quickly poured a circle of salt around himself and an unconscious Dean, the demon had loosened his grip on my arm and I took the opportunity to yank my arm out of his grasp and ran into the circle,

"You can stand there looking at us as long as you want, but you're not touching us you evil son of a bitch."

There was a moment where we all stared at each other and then Jason shuddered and the demon left him quickly, as only a black cloud billowing out of his mouth.

Jason looked at us in confusion for a moment,

"You're never going to love me again are you?"

"No Jason. I'm not."

I thought the guy was just sad, I mean he had just been possessed by the mother of all demons, and it had finally sunk into his thick skull that I would never, ever, ever love him.  
Boy was I wrong, he wasn't sad, he was madder that mad. He lunged towards me knife in hand; the knife hit my arm and cut through my flesh. I screamed and, with my arm that wasn't impaled with metal, shoved him as hard as I could away from me,

I stumbled back and was caught by Sam. Jason's eyes had switched emotions once again; the guy had mood swings like a pregnant woman,

"I spent the last two years trying to find you Kaiden. You were my world."  
_Well, _I thought, _Maybe you need a better pass time._

In one swift motion Jason lifted the knife in his hand and slammed it into his throat.


	19. Chapter 19

Jason's limp body fell to the floor with a thump and I stood there staring at him in complete shock.  
Dean, who had regained consciousness, was being helped up off the floor by Sam and then the two of them lead me out of the room. My feet were moving and I was walking down the stairs but it felt like I was oddly detached from my body.

Dean was saying something to me but I couldn't comprehend it, my body began shaking violently and I felt like I had suddenly snapped back into my body,  
"She's in shock Dean." I head Sam said, his voice was distant.

Dean tried to lead me to the living room couch but my feet were moving so slowly that he picked me up into his arms and carried me the distance. He sat down on the couch, still cradling me and I heard him call to Fay,  
"Could you get a couple blankets and some bandages?"

He pulled me into him in effort to quell the shaking, while being careful of my injured arm.

The most frightening part wasn't the fact that I had pretty much zero control over my body; it was the fact that I was having some serious issues breathing and couldn't voice any of what I was feeling,  
"D-Dean?" I managed through chattering teeth,

"Shhh, Kaiden, you'll be fine. Just breathe for me, okay?"

Fay returned to the room with bandages in one hand and Isabelle in another, George was in tow carrying some heavy woolen blankets, which he handed to Dean. Dean bundled the blankets around me and Fay aptly wrapped my arm for the second time that day.

Sam walked into the room with a serious look on his face,  
"He's dead. We have to call the cops."

I was feeling better enough to be able to comprehend the situation. Dean and Sam couldn't be around when the cops came, they were wanted for multiple crimes.

"You can't stick around here." I said with great effort to Dean, "You and Sam have to get out of here."

"What's this?" Fay asked in confusion,

Sam sighed and sat down in one of the arm chairs across from the couch,  
"We're wanted for some crimes that we aren't guilty of."

George smiled but there was no humor on his face,  
"I know all about that problem. You guys need to get out of here."

"We can't ask you to lie to the police for us." Dean said, his voice tired

Fay snorted,  
"It wouldn't be the first time we've done it. Now get your stuff and get out of here."  
Dean stood up from the couch, still holding me in his arms, and then placed me back down before going with Sam to gather our things.

They returned a few minutes later and Dean helped me walk out to the car, I was considerably better than I was before, but my legs were still pretty wobbly so I needed Dean to support some of my weight.

I hugged Fay and shook George's hand before sliding into the backseat of the Impala, the wool blanket still wrapped around me. Fay had insisted that I keep the blanket, for which I was grateful since I was still freezing.

Dean and Sam said their goodbyes and hopped into the car and we pulled out the driveway, Dean cast me a worried glance before concentrating on the road.  
I knew he was freaked out about what had happened earlier, but so was I, I knew now that the demon was using me to get to Dean. It was a scary thought, that something good like how I felt for Dean could be used against us to hurt him. I had a strong urge to put some miles between me and Dean just to keep him safe, but at the same time I knew that it would hurt him and in the end it would be like the demon had won anyways.

I heard Dean and Sam talking about something but I was so exhausted from the events of the last hour that I was fighting sleep. I eventually let my eyes slide shut and slipped into a fitful sleep.

_I was in a dimly lit room; it was so cold I could see my breath in front of me. There were two tables in the room with sheets over them, and something under the sheets._

My breath caught in my chest as I realized where I was, I was in a morgue, and those were bodies on those sheets.

A gust of wind came through the room and the sheets blew from the table, fluttering to the ground, leaving me with a horrible sight in front of me.

Dean and Sam were the ones laying on the table, all of a sudden they sat up and turned towards me, their faces were white as milk and their lips the cold blue colour of death,  
"You killed us." Came Dean's voice, it was so full of bitterness and hate I took a step back, "It's your fault we're dead."

I woke with a start and yelled,  
"No!"

Dean stroked the hair off my foreheads which was damp with sweat, he must have come sat in the backseat with me while I was sleeping,

"Kaiden, what's wrong babe?"

I used to think that pet names like baby and honey and sweetheart were stupid and possessive, but they were kind of growing on me.

I looked up into his eyes which seemed to constantly have worry etched in them. I knew I was the cause of that worry and instantly felt guilty for putting so much stress on him,  
"Just a bad dream." I whispered and allowed him to wrap his arms completely around me.

Dean seemed to like having me in his arms; I knew that most of it was out of affection. But it was also for his own benefit, he liked protecting me and as long as I was in his arms, he could keep me safe,  
"Do you want to tell me about it?" He asked gently, he knew how much my dreams scared me most of the time, and he also knew better than to make light of what freaked me out,

"You and Sam were dead." I said so quietly I could hardly even hear it, but Dean caught it,  
"Jesus." He muttered and tightened his arms around me,

"Y-you said it was my fault. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you Dean."

A tear fell from my eye and I wiped it away quickly hoping that he wouldn't notice, but of course he did and kissed away the tears that followed quickly behind the first,  
"I can promise you that I will _never _leave you."

We sat in silence for a little while before I mustered up the courage to bring up the events of earlier,  
"Dean?"

"Yea?" He mumbled with his head resting against the back of the seat, his eyes closed,

"Do you think if I had done something different Jason would be alive, would have been able to get help?"

That comment caught his attention and his eyes opened quickly,  
"There was nothing that you could have done. Fay told me all the details about what he did to you, and that man was a monster."

"He didn't deserve to die."

The guilt was eating away at me, I just wished I had been able to convince him that I wasn't worth dying over and he just needed some help. I would have gotten him help,  
"Kaiden, you can't take responsibility for his actions. It was his choice and there wasn't anything you could have done."

Around midnight we pulled into the parking lot of the typical type of motel that we always stayed in, I should have been used to dingy living conditions, but seeing Fay's house and the life that I could have had if the demon hadn't come to my house went I was just a baby. It was amazing that one thing could have such a massive effect on my life. But on the other hand, if the demon hadn't come to my house, and the Winchester's house, I would have never met Dean or Sam, along with numerous other people I had met over the years, including Fay and George.  
We all got out of the car, I had been sleeping during most of the drive, and when I was awake I was staring blankly out the window of the Impala, but for some reason I was exhausted both emotionally and physically.

I walked like a zombie behind Dean into the motel room to which Sam had gotten the keys. We walked into the room and I looked around, it was actually pretty nice compared to what we usually stayed in.

There was floral wallpaper all around the room and the carpet wasn't covered in stains from god-knows-what. The beds had soft mattresses as I discovered when I sat down on the one closest to the door; they also had matching bedspreads and two pillows on each side. It made me so happy to stay in a place like this, although most people would turn their noses up at it, it was my luxury.

Dean saw the smile on my face,  
"We figured you'd like to stay somewhere a tad nicer than usual."

I stood up from the bed and kissed Dean lightly, then turned to give Sam a hug. They took care of me, I could only imagine where I would be if I had decided to go off hunting by myself after my dad had died. I would probably be dead,  
"Well I don't know about you two," Sam said, "but I am dead tired. I'm going to bed."

Dean and I both said goodnight to Sam and we started getting ready for bed. I snagged a pair of Dean's boxers and was shrugging them on when I turned to him,  
"Is it okay that I sleep in your clothes?" It had never really occurred to me that it might bother him, but now that I thought of it, it really worried me.

He laughed,  
"Kaiden if I didn't want you wearing my clothes I wouldn't let you. Besides, you look really hot wearing my stuff, it's a real turn-on."

He leaned down and began kissing my jaw and then all down to my collar bone, I didn't want him to have any expectations of our relationship that I wasn't really ready to live up to, we hadn't really talked about it but I figured now was as good of a time as any,  
"Dean," I said, placing a hand on his chest, "after Jason, I've been having some issues, as you may have noticed."

He nodded his head,  
"I have noticed."

_Okay,_ I thought to myself, _here's the moment of truth,_

"I don't think I'm really ready to have sex and Sam told me about how you were with your old girlfriends and stuff and I don't want that to surprise you when you're, er, in the mood." The words tumbled out of my mouth in a rambling mess and I stood there wishing that I had the ability to put a sentence together like a normal person.

Dean leaned forward and kissed me gently on the forehead,  
"I'll be ready when you're ready."

I smiled at him and we climbed into bed, I fell asleep snuggled against him in my usual fashion thinking about how happy I was that finally something was going right again.

I had no clue of the hell to come.


	20. Chapter 20

The next few days involved nothing eventful, it was my idea of what life would be like if I didn't professionally hunt demons. Well I guess you can't really say I do it professionally, since I don't get paid.

Anyways, it was exactly how I imagined a normal life would be. Except, you know, I don't think people living normal lives talked about demons and exorcisms. Not unless the definition of normal has changed drastically since I last checked.

I woke up on the fourth morning of staying at the hotel we arrived in after leaving Fay's, to the sound of something moving around the room. The blinking red light of the digital clock read 3:00a.m., it was so dark in the room I could barely see anything except a looming shadow near the motel bathroom.

My hunting instincts immediately kicked in and I crept quietly across the room, my bare feet making little to no noise on the soft, padded carpet. I reached the figure which was facing away from me and jumped on their back, wrapping my arms around their neck to cut off air any air. The person, who I determined with my superb detective skills, was a man, I could tell mostly because of his broad shoulders and he was really tall. As I continued to squeeze the air out of him and he dropped to his knees I heard him try to say something,  
"Kaiden-"

_How does he know my name?_ I thought, and then it hit me, I knew that voice. I quickly released my hold around his neck and stumbled back,

"I am so sorry Sam!" I said in a whisper, trying not to wake Dean

Sam was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, breathing heavily,

"It's okay." He said in a weak voice.

I heard Dean stir from where he was still lying on the bed I had been previously sleeping with him on. I was surprised he hadn't woken up earlier; trying to stop intruders generally makes some noise,

"What's going on?" He asked in a groggy voice,

"Your girlfriend just tried to kill me." Sam wheezed,

I could see Dean's outline nod and lay his head back down onto the pillow,

"Next time actually kill him. Maybe then I won't have to hear his bitching and moaning all the time."

I laughed and turned back to Sam,

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked,

He nodded his head, but being as stubborn as I am, I helped him up and lead him into the bathroom, closing the door behind his as to not wake Dean again.  
I sat Sam down on the toilet so we were closer to eye level and I got a good look at his neck, it didn't look too bad right now, there would probably be some minor bruising but he was lucky I realized it was him when I did,

"So why were you up?" I questioned, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, watching him splash some water on his face.  
He looked uncomfortable,

"I had a dream."

Well this was never a good thing; our freaky dreams always resulted in trouble,  
"What happened in the dream?"

"It wasn't really all that clear." He said, "It was more like flashes. First you were in a hospital room and Dean was laying unconscious in a bed, and then-" He broke off,

"What Sam?"

He rubbed his neck and I could tell that he didn't want to tell me something. He sighed,

"And then I saw Dean with all these doctors working on him. And then – And then he flat lined."

I stared at him in horror. Flat lined? Dean died. This couldn't be right.  
I stood up from where I was sitting and began pacing the small tiled confines of the bathroom,  
"Are you sure?" I demanded, "Maybe it was someone else. Or maybe it wasn't a flat line. Maybe it was just a mostly flat line."

Even as the words left my mouth I knew they sounded ridiculous, Sam wouldn't have said anything about it unless he was sure, and a mostly flat line? That was the dumbest thing I'd ever said, out of a ridiculously long list of stupid and dumb things said.

Sam shook his head and looked down at me sadly,  
"I'm sure."

"Okay." I said trying to figure out how to deal with the situation, "This is what we do, we do the regular stuff, pretend nothing's wrong, but if there is a dangerous situation we make sure Dean doesn't get hurt. There's no need to alarm him."

"You're right."

We left the bathroom and walked back into the main room, Dean was sound asleep on the bed just as he had when Sam and I had gone into the bathroom.  
I told Sam that he should try to get some more sleep, and then I joined Dean on the bed. Even in his sleep he instinctively pulled me towards him as soon as I lay beside him on the bed. His need to protect was so deeply entrenched in him that he did it in his sleep. He was always trying to keep me safe from danger and I allowed him to most of the time, as to not hurt his fragile male ego, but from then on I was determined to do everything I could possibly do to keep him safe as well. There was no way I was going to let Sam's vision come true. 


	21. Chapter 21

After the incident that involved me trying to kill Sam, and Sam telling me that he had a vision of Dean dead, I couldn't sleep very well. Not that I didn't have a valid reason.  
So I ended up checking Dean's pulse every time I woke up from a nightmare, which was often. I know it sounds stupid but before Dean, I had been doing my very best to keep my distance from men and not get attached. But being with Dean was nothing I could have expected. I had become completely attached to him and that alone was enough to scare the crap of me.

It was around 9a.m. and I was lying on the bed I was sharing with Dean. Both the Winchester men were out cold, Sam was snoring loudly. I placed two fingers over Dean's pulse point on his neck and felt for a steady beat, what I got instead was a groan,  
"What are you doing Kaiden?" He mumbled mostly into his pillow.

I quickly pulled my fingers from where they were on his skin,  
"Err, nothing." I replied with a deep blush,  
"I get it." He said, "You just can't keep your hands off me."

I should have known that he would have the ability to be a smart-ass even when he had just woken up.

Dean rolled over and propped himself up on his forearms, his body pressing against mine and his mouth only inches away from my lips,  
"You're pretty sure of yourself Winchester."

He ran his fingers down my check,  
"Yea, well I can afford to be, especially with a hot chick like you."

I laughed and shoved him away from me,  
"You're an idiot."  
I slid out of bed and padded towards the mini fridge on the other side of the room. I pulled out a bottle of water and took a long drink as I watched Dean walk into the bathroom and turn on the shower.

He poked his head out the bathroom door,  
"You wanna join in on the fun?" he asked me as his eyebrows rose suggestively,  
"Ha!" I said, "As tempting as that offer might be, I'll have to pass."  
He said something along the lines of "Your loss." and retreated back into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Sam woke up a few minutes later looking like he had only gotten a few hours of decent sleep,  
"Morning Sam." I said as I sat down on the edge of the bed, routing through my duffle bag,  
"Morning." He groggily replied.

I pulled out a pair of jeans and a baggy sweatshirt over the boxers and t-shirt I had been previously sleeping in,  
"I'm going for food." I said to Sam as I grabbed my wallet, shoved it in my pocket and walked out the door.

The day was beautiful; the temperature was warm and the sky was completely clear, perfect for walking.  
I headed towards the quaint little diner that was about 7 miles from where we were staying, I had to walk along a long stretch of pretty much deserted country road, but it was too nice to drive so I decided to tough it out. The exercise would do me good.

It didn't even take me half an hour before I was sitting on a stool at the counter in diner, waiting for my order to be ready.  
There was a man sitting a couple stools down drinking a cup of coffee. He looked over and me and smiled,  
"They have really good food here."  
I gave him a friendly smile back,  
"Yea, we've ate here a couple times."  
"We?"  
"Me and some friends." The guy seemed harmless so I didn't think I need to drop the 'I have a boyfriend' hint,  
"I see." He held out his hand, "I'm Alex."  
"Kaiden." I said shaking his hand

A matronly waitress bought me my orders in three Styrofoam take-out containers. I thanked the lady and gave Alex a smile before walking out.  
I bought a package of licorice and some other candy including peanut M&Ms for Dean and me to share.

I hadn't been walking back towards the motel for more than five minutes before a dark blue Honda Civic pulled up beside me. I turned my head and looked through the open window of the car, the guy from the diner, Alex, was staring back at me,  
"Let me give you a lift back to where you are staying."  
I shook my head,  
"No thanks, I'm only a couple minutes away."

He nodded his head and the car sped up, I figured he had given up his attempt to hook up with me, but the car pulled to a complete stop a couple meters ahead of me. He got out of the car, walked up to me and stood uncomfortably close,  
"Let me give you a ride." His words weren't a suggestion, they were a command.

I suddenly became uncomfortable, I had only just noticed that I had left the main part of town and was now walking down the long stretch of road with not much around.  
The man must have seen my unnerved expression and figured I'd bolt, he closed the minimal distance between is and wrapped his strong fingers around my wrist, forcing me to drop the food and candy I had been carrying. I tired to wrench my arm out of his grasp, but he only tightened his grip into one that I knew would bruise my fair skin.

"What do you want from me?"  
"I've been watching you for weeks. You're here with two men. I saw you kissing and holding hands with the one, tempting me, like some slut. Get in the car, I want my turn."

Whoa, this guy had been watching me? That was just a tad too creepy, and the fact that he had called me a slut pissed me off in a major way. There was no way in hell I was tempting him either. This guy was clearly some kind of maniac,  
"Look." I said through clenched teeth, "I don't know who you think you are, but you are sure as hell better let me go. I am not someone you want to mess with."

He pulled something out of his pocket; it was a handful of pills,  
"I promise you it won't hurt much."

I did what any girl in my position would do; I screamed.  
Alex dragged me to his car, and when I wouldn't stop screaming he slammed my face into the door frame of the car.  
I quieted, I was literally seeing stars. He took advantage of my stunned condition and shoved the handful of pills into my mouth and cut my air off by covering my mouth and nose until I swallowed the pills.

I gulped air after he released his grip and keened him right between the legs while simultaneously punching him in the solar plexus.

Once he had dropped to his knees in pain and I had delivered one last blow, rendering him unconscious I ran as fast as my legs would take me back to the motel.  
Whatever pills that Alex guy had drugged me with were beginning to take affect as I ran, my limbs became heavy and running became difficult.

As I reached the door to our motel room my motor skills were not entirely functional, I was having some issues getting the key in the lock and the fact that my eye was swelling from where it had hit the car wasn't helping either.

Tears burned my eyes and rolled down my cheeks, the panic from what had happened was setting in and there was nothing I could do to control the hysterical sobs. They key slipped from my fingers and I started banging on the door as hard as I could.

The door swung open and Sam was standing in front of me wearing some jeans and a brown hoodie, I threw myself at him as more tears poured down my face,  
"Kaiden?" Sam asked with an alarmed voice.  
I heard the creek of bed springs and feet moving quickly across the room, and before I knew it, I wasn't resting my face on Sam's sweater, I as crying into Dean's t-shirt clad shoulder,  
"Shhh," He said, "You're okay. You're okay now. What happened?"

I found myself extremely woozy; my legs wobbled and gave out from under me. Dean caught me in his strong arms and helped me to the bed,  
"Sam what's going on?" he asked in a panicked voice.  
Sam's face appeared in front of mine, I could see his mouth moving the only thing I could hear was a sound that was something like an out of tune radio.

I stood up shakily and moved as fast as my legs would allow me to the mini fridge, dumping salt and water into a glass and chugging it down. I made it to the bathroom just in time for my stomach to empty it's self into the toilet. I felt slightly better and leaned against the shower stall, still pretty weak.  
I figured I would be okay since I had thrown up most of what I had been drugged with, but I was still pretty damned shaky, my entire body felt like Jell-O.

I turned to Sam and Dean, who had followed me into the bathroom,  
"What happened?" Dean asked,  
"A m-man att-tacked me." He kept talking but it was barely audible through my hysteria, I could tell Dean hadn't caught a word of it so Sam translated for him,  
"He drugged her." Sam said, his face and voice dead serious.

Dean lifted me from where I was sitting and wrapped his arms around my shaking body,  
"Do you think she'll be alright?"  
Sam shrugged,  
"We don't know what he gave her, or how much of it. She should probably get checked out at a hospital."  
"No." I said as I shook my head, there was no way I was going to a hospital, not after being in one so recently.

Dean helped/carried me back to the bed and I told him and Sam everything that had happened form when I left the room to when I knocked the guy out and sprinted back to the motel.  
Dean's eyes were dark with rage,  
"Sam you stay here with Kaiden." He bit out as he walked across the room and shrugged on his leather jacket,  
"Where are you going?" Sam asked,  
"Out." Was Dean's only reply as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.  
"He's going to do something stupid and get himself killed." Sam muttered to himself.  
"Sam you need to go track Dean down." I said after we sat in silence for a few minutes.  
He nodded his head and zipped up his sweater,  
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"  
I informed him that I would be fine and he left, hoping to go track down Dean on foot.

I made sure the door and windows were locked up before I put on one of Dean's button up flannel shirts and climbed into bed. I had been wearing Dean's clothes quite a bit lately, mostly because it had been a really long while since any of my garments had seen a washing machine, Dean's clothes just didn't seem to get dirty the same way mine did. I think it was because Dean wasn't falling down all the time and getting mauled on hunts like I did.  
I was curled up in bed watching infomercials, I was half way through the one with the guy cutting shoes with a knife when the door unlocked and opened.  
My stomach clenched in fears, but I relaxed when I saw Sam and Dean walk across the threshold,  
"What happened?" I asked,  
"We found him." Dean said, avoiding my eyes  
"And…?"  
"And," Sam said, "He has Dean to thank for a broken nose and a couple of broken ribs."

Dean sat down on the bed beside me, his jacket wet from the rain that must have started after I got back to the motel,  
"So now what?" I asked, "The guy had been watching us. He seemed crazy, acting like-"  
"Jason?" Dean cut in  
Jason was exactly who I had been thinking about, but it was weird that it was Dean's first guess  
"What's going on that you're not telling me?" I demanded, looking back and forth between Dean and Sam.

Sam sighed and sat down on the bed across from me,  
"He talked about a man with yellow eyes." He said in a tired voice,  
My mouth hung open,  
"The yellow eyed demon got to him?"  
Both the Winchesters nodded,  
"What do we do now?" I questioned,  
"We pack up. Drive as far away from here as we can and find a job, keep ourselves busy and out of sight." Dean said as he began tossing his things into his bags.  
I stood up and followed suit.  
I knew one thing was for certain, I sure as hell wasn't getting any sleep tonight.


	22. Chapter 22

We ended up driving around for a couple of days, staying in different motels, moving from city to city. Dean and Sam wouldn't let me go anywhere without one or both of them with me.

It turned out that Alex, the guy who had attacked me, had been following us since I had been released from the hospital after Dean and I got shot. Apparently the demon wanted a back-up in case his plan with Jason didn't go through as he had hoped, which it obviously didn't.

I felt queasy just thinking about the guy watching me and having no clue.

Dean and I were sitting around the small table that was pushed up against the wall of the dingy motel room we were staying in. Sam practically burst into the room and threw a newspaper on the table,

"I think I found something." He said in a slightly out of breath voice.

Instead of saying anything I opted to take sips from my coffee and peer at Sam from over the rim of my cup,

"Did you run?" I inquired

"I. I just thought you guys would like to know."

I continued to stare at him unflinchingly until Sam became obviously uncomfortable. I pride myself on being able to stare people down,

"Err, Dean, could you tell her to stop looking at me like that? She's not even blinking or anything."  
Dean laughed,

"You'd better stop it. Sammy might cry."

"Shut up. I would not, you jerk."

"Bitch."

"Guys!" I said interrupting them, "Can we just talk about the hunt?"

Sam took a seat around the table and flipped open the newspaper,

"Seven people over the last two weeks have been admitted to the local hospital in Bozeman, Montana."

Dean interrupted him,

"Sam, people get admitted to hospitals all the time, especially when they are around wilderness areas."

"Dean, I was going to explain the rest but you just can't keep your mouth shut, can you?"

"Go to hell!" Dean bit back

"Bite me, you self-involved piece of -"

"Guys!" I said for the second time, "Cool it, okay?"

Both the Winchesters had been keeping such a close eye on me that they were driving each other nuts. As a result of that, they were driving me up the wall,

"Sam. Please continue what you were saying. And Dean, shut up. I'm sick of playing referee with you two."

Dean scowled and sat down on the edge of the bed. I swear the guy acted like he was freaking three years old sometimes.

Sam picked up where he left off,

"So, as I was saying. All of these people are in the hospital right now, pretty much on the verge of death. Four people other than the ones that are in the hospital right now have died."

I shook my head and sat down beside Dean who was still scowling from what I had said. He was used to being told to shut up by Sam, but not really his girlfriend,

"What's wrong with them?" I asked

"They have been so stressed out for a continual period of time. Apparently the doctors are saying it's putting too much strain on their hearts."

Dean shrugged,

"So a bunch of people are stressed out? What makes this out kind of deal?"

I sensed another bickering matching coming on so I quickly started talking before Dean and Sam could argue anymore,

"I think what he means," I said as I gave Dean a meaningful look, "Is, do you have anymore information?"

"Well," Sam said as he pulled out his laptop and turned it on, "I heard about this a couple days ago and I've been reading about it on the internet. I didn't want to say anything until I knew it was for us for sure.

"So all of the people, eleven including the ones who have already died, have fallen into a stressed-out coma state, all in the same area. I'm not one hundred percent certain and I won't be unless we check it out, but I'm pretty much all of the hikers passed through the same area of the forest. Anyways, they have been reported to have been attacked by some kind of bear-like creature. And then nothing, the only sign something is wrong is their elevated heart rate."

"And the fact that they are unconscious." I added

"Yea," Sam said as he typed into his computer, "That too."

Dean stood up from where he had been sitting on the bed and grabbed his coffee off of the table,

"Well I'm sold. When do you want to head to Bozeman?"

"We could go now and stop for lunch pretty soon, 'cause I'm starving."

The guys managed to agree on when should leave, but the bickering started again once we had to decide on what kind of restaurant we should eat at.

After ten minutes of,

"No we're not going to another smoke-filled bar, I swear the last time there were ashes from someone's cigarette in my pizza!"

"Shut up Sam, those ashes were just in your head!"

"No they weren't!"

I cut into their conversation,

"I swear to god!" I yelled, "If you two argue one more time about who's right about something or where we should eat, or the next motel we should stay in. I am going to leave and figure out what's going on in Bozeman myself! Okay?!"

They both said okay and we drove in silence until I pointed out a restaurant to eat in. Neither of them argued about my choice of place to eat, I think they were still kind of scared from my previous outburst.

We sat silently in a booth at a small family restaurant named Benny's, most of the people in there were in their late twenties/early thirties and had little toddlers running around left right and center.

I found myself picturing Dean carrying around a blonde haired little girl with my green eyes and her daddy's face shape and freckles. I shook my head; I highly doubted that was ever going to happen in this reality. Dean loved the hunt way too much to give it all up. Him trying to balance hunting on one hand and a feeding schedule on the other wouldn't exactly work. Dean loved the hunt way too much to give it all up. I wasn't holding my breath for him to give me the grand gesture.

Dean who was sitting beside me in the booth took my hand,

"What's wrong?" He asked,

"Hm?"

"You look so serious."

"Oh." I said turning a little pink, "I just trying to decide on what to order. Probably the chicken club."

Okay, so I was lying to him. But what did you want me to say 'I was just thinking about having your babies'? Yea, that would have gone over _real_ well.

Dean said something about the menu but I wasn't really listening. I was still picturing Dean with that little girl, laughing and playing.

A waitress maybe a year or two younger than me with so much makeup caked on her face and eyebrows arched so high she looked like a slightly sluttier Barbie doll came and took our orders. Sam and I both got the chicken club sandwich, no mayo on mine, but extra mayo on his. I made a disgusted face but then I heard Dean's order, he had decided on a double bacon cheeseburger with extra onions. Absolutely revolting.

"You know Sam." I said, "I don't think it's his ego that's making his head so huge. I think it's all the fat from those burgers going straight to his brain, and it all expanded."

Sam choked on the water he was drinking and Dean shot me an offended look,

"My head is not large." was his only reply.

"Of course it's not" I said patting his shoulder and sliding out of the booth, heading towards the bathroom.

I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face. I had been getting awful headaches off and on for the past couple of days. I would have liked to chalk it up to the lack of sleep I had been getting due to my nightmares. But I had been getting progressively worse visions over the last week or so. Most of the time my visions during the day had been small flashes of things and dull pains in my head, but over the last couple of days the headaches had been lasting way longer than usual.

Ironically enough, just as I was drying off my face with a paper towel and staring at the prominent bags under my eyes, a blinding flash of pain shot through my head and I fell foreword, hitting my head on the edge of the sink, I barely registered the pain from the collision as I was falling into darkness while laying on the bathroom floor.

I came to with a girl hovering overtop of me and shaking my arm gently, I recognized her as the waitress that had been serving Dean, Sam and I.

"Miss?" he asked in a voice that was distant, "Miss are you okay?"

I went to say something but it felt as if my mouth was full of cotton balls and my tongue leaden. Not the most pleasant sensation. Along with that there was a throbbing pain coming from my forehead that reminded me of how I got to laying on the ground.

The waitress spoke to a women standing beside her who I had just noticed,

"I'm going to get the men she is here with. Keep an eye on her, okay?"

"Okay." Replied the woman and the waitress hurriedly exited the washroom.

The woman who introduced herself to me as Veronica continued talking to me and helped me up to a sitting position. I leaned my head back against the tiled wall and thought about what I had seen. It was the single worst thing I had ever seen, and being a hunter, I had seen my fair share of horrible things.

I shook my head trying to rid myself of my vision.

Dean and Sam hurried into the bathroom; I could see the waitress hovering behind them just outside the bathroom door. Dean stooped down in front of me and wiped the blood away from where I could feel it seeping out of the cut that had been created when my head had smashed into the porcelain of the sink,

"What happened, Kay?" he asked as he helped me up off the floor.

Sam pulled some paper towel out of the dispenser and handed it to Dean who held it against the gash on my forehead. I turned and looked in the mirror and saw a massive bruise forming over a lump just over my eye. I was feeling really nauseous so I leaned against Dean and allowed him to lead me out of the bathroom.

"Were you in there when she passed out?" I heard Sam ask the two women who had helped me. They boy told him that they hadn't so he just said,

"Could we get our orders to go?"

The waitress scurried to get our food and handed it to Sam as he walked out the door.

I was sitting in the car trying to avoid Dean's questions and eye contact when Sam slid in the passenger seat and we left the parking lot.

We decided to only drive for a couple more hours after the incident at the restaurant and pulled into a motel. Dean had been asking me questions about what had happened constantly after we left Benny's but after he realized all I would say was 'nothing' and 'I don't know' he gave up and we had driven most of the way in silence.

My vision had scared me down to the bone and I desperately needed to figure out what I needed to do. And while I did that I did my very best to keep Dean at arm's length, I was a danger to him.

We had been at the motel for two hours when I couldn't stand sitting in the room with them anymore, I couldn't deal with the guilt that being there caused me. I got up and started throwing things into my duffle bag,

"Where are you going?" Dean asked in an astonished voice as I threw on my coat and walked out the motel room door,

"I'm getting my own room." I said stiffly as I walked to the main building of the motel.

Dean's mouth fell open a small amount and his eyes opened fully,

"Why would you do that?"

"Dean. I just have to. Leave it alone."

"No!" He practically yelled, "You've been like this since you passed out in the bathroom, what the fuck is going on?!"

I spun around on my heel,

"You don't know what the hell you are talking about Dean. Leave. It. Alone."

I kept walking and this time Dean didn't follow me.

_Believe me Dean_, I thought, _this is for you._

I walked up the to check in desk of the motel and handed over my fake credit card to pay for a room,

"You know a pretty little thing like you shouldn't be staying alone." The motel worker that was well passed middle aged informed me as he handed me the key to my room,

"Yea, thanks for the tip." I mumbled as I took the key from him and headed to my room.

I sat in my room without turning on the lights. My head was still pounding and sitting in the dark made it a little bit better. I have no clue how long I had been sitting alone staring at the wall when I heard a knock on the door. Neither Sam or Dean knew what room number I was in, so I figured it was the man working at the reception desk,

"Honestly. I don't need someone to stay with me." I said as I opened the door, but instead of the older balding man standing in front of me, it was Sam.

"What do you want Sam?" I asked in a tired voice, I tried to stand up straight and block the door so that he wouldn't get the idea I was inviting him in. Not that it mattered, if he really wanted in his 6 foot 5 frame could totally take down my five foot four one without batting an eye,

"We need to talk." He said as he walked into the motel room.

Annoyed that my clear hints that I wasn't in the mood for company had been ignored I closed the door and turned to face him, my arms crossed,  
"About what?"

"How about you packing up and leaving for a start? This isn't like you Kaiden and both Dean and I are worried as hell."

"Yea well he sure did a real good job of showing his worry earlier by yelling at me." I mumbled to myself, but Sam had heard what I said,

"Have you not picked up on anything since you started riding with us? And when you stayed with us when we were younger? That's just how Dean is; he doesn't know how to express things so he just lets them build up and freaks out at whoever is within range. It just was you this time. He's worried as shit though, he's been pacing back and forth trying to convince me to come talk to you since you left."

It was way too tempting to just go with Sam back to their room and hope that my vision didn't come true. But I couldn't take that chance,

"Sam. I get that you and him are worried but I have my reasons for leaving. I can't put either of you in that kind of danger."

He shook his head,

"Kaiden, whatever it is you are wrestling with, tell me. Dean and I can help you figure it out."

"No, you don't understand." I said and I started walking to the other side of the room, just for the sake of moving

"What? What don't I understand?"

I spun around to face him,

"I can't go back with you Sam!" I practically yelled, "I had a vision."

"You've had visions before, and you've never just packed up and ran."

"I killed Dean, Sam! In my vision I killed Dean!"


	23. Chapter 23

Sam sighed and sat down on the edge that was jutting out into the middle of the room, "Yea, me too."  
I looked at him in complete and utter confusion,  
"You what?"  
"I've had visions lately. Dreams too, all of which contain me killing you, or Dean. Sometimes its other people too."  
"What-I – how does that even make sense?"  
"I think it's the yellow eyed demon's doing."  
I snorted,  
"Do you really think that the mother of all demons has the time to play mess with Sam and Kaiden's minds?"  
Sam shrugged,  
"He seems to have enough time to drive people to the brink of sanity and then convince them to try to kill you. This might be a more effective way for him to do it. Less foot work."  
"So now what?"  
"We have to stick together. The whole reason he is doing this is because we're too strong together. He knows that our main goal is to take his evil ass down and he doesn't want to take the chance of us actually doing it. By leaving you are just giving him what he wants."  
We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, that is until Sam started chuckling to himself,  
"What part of us seeing ourselves killing people is funny?" I demanded

"It's not that. It's just, I was thinking about how much you and Dean are alike. He attacked you because of the Djinn and then he separates himself from you in order to keep you safe. And now you have a dream of you killing Dean and you pack up your bags, move like three doors down, not exactly the best attempt at a run away I might add, but the end product is the same. You're trying to protect him."  
"Shut up." I mumbled as I gave him a shove, "What do you think I should do?"  
"You should talk to him. Tell him the truth about what happened today and you guys can kiss and make up, preferably in here, where I don't have to witness it."  
I nodded, I knew he was right, no matter what I did the demon would still want to hurt him. No matter how many miles, or motel rooms for that matter, I put between us it wouldn't change the fact that the demon wanted all three of us dead,  
"Could you send him over when you go back?"  
Sam nodded his head and headed to the door,  
"Hey Sam?" I called,  
"Yea?"  
"Doesn't it freak you out? I mean the dreams and visions."  
He gave me a sad smile and before he closed the door behind him I heard him say,  
"It scares the hell out of me."

Dean was knocking at my door less then five minutes later. I answered the door and the first thing I noticed was Dean's clothes looked like they had been haphazardly thrown on and his hair was all wet.  
I laughed,  
"Did you run from the shower?"  
He looked a little sheepish as he stepped across the threshold and into the room I was staying in,  
"I was kind of worried you'd change your mind."  
I nodded my head and sat on the bed, beckoning him to join me,  
"Dean, earlier today at the restaurant I-"  
"Sam already told me everything." He said, cutting me off.  
"He did, did he? I guess he didn't trust me enough to tell you myself."  
Dean shrugged and pulled me into his arms,  
"He also told me that the whole reason you left was because you were trying to protect me."  
It was my turn to look sheepish and uncomfortable,  
"Yea, I was just. You know." I laughed nervously, "Killing you would have kind of sucked."  
"Yea." He said in a dead serious voice, "It would have kind of sucked."  
"Shut up." I said with a laugh and gave him a playful push, "There's no need to mock."  
Dean pulled me towards him so our lips brushed each other,  
"I'm not mocking," he whispered against my lips, "I just like repeating what you say."  
We lay on the bed for a long time, just kissing softly, nothing above pg-13, until Dean got up and pulled me with him,  
"Come on, we should probably go back to the room."  
I hesitated,  
"I'm going to stay here." I said, looking him dead in the eye,  
"What?" he questioned,  
"I'm staying here tonight." I clarified,  
"Oh, okay." He said, clearly disappointed,  
"I want to know if you'll stay here with me."  
A smile spread from one ear to another on his face as he pulled me into him,  
"You know," he said, "This would be a big deal if we weren't already sleeping in the same bed."  
I laughed,  
"Yea, well you're just so irresistible that I just can't contain myself when you're around."  
He nodded his head solemnly,  
"That's what I keep telling everyone."  
My only response to that was a snort and I told him as he picked up the phone that,  
"Sam already knows you're staying here. He pretty much knew it before we did."  
Dean nodded,  
"It'll be good for him to get away from us. He'll probably just watch some porn."  
"Ew, gross Dean."  
He shrugged,  
"The guy gets no action, can you blame him?"  
"I totally do not want to be having this conversation. Isn't it weird that you're talking like this about your brother?"  
"I'm just stating the facts of life." He said with another shrug,  
"Yea well you're making me ill."

We spent the rest of the night lounging around, we ordered some pizza and Dean got some beer. We ended up watching some horror movie that Dean had picked while I was in the shower. I hate horror movies with all my being, it's not like I don't have to see this stuff live and in person pretty much every other day. I just don't feel the need to watch it on T.V. Plus it scared me a lot, which I know, is weird,  
"Is there any way we could not watch this?" I asked,  
"You're not trying to tell me that you're scared, are you?" he questioned, tearing his eyes away from the screen and looking at me with a funny expression of his face, "After all we've seen?"  
"Yea well," I cross my arms. "When we hunt I can rest easy knowing that we've killed it, and the fact that I generally sleep with protection."  
"You're telling me that you sleep with condoms?"  
"No!" I exclaimed. "I mean that you are the big strong protector and if anything broke in they'd kill the guy first. They always do." My face had turned a brilliant shade of red.  
He laughed pretty hard for a length of time that allowed the blush to drain from my face and an expression of annoyance to replace my previous one of embarrassment,  
"Don't worry." He said, ruffling my hair in an irritating fashion, "I'll let you sleep with my talisman tonight, it'll keep you good and safe."  
He pulled off the worn leather around his neck that held an ancient Egyptian necklace and slid it around my throat, tying it on a knot at the back of my neck,  
"Thanks." I murmured as I looked down at it, I'd never seen him without it, "But now what about you?"  
He kissed me softly,  
"Don't worry. I'm big and tough. I promise I'll fight off anything that comes near."  
I made some sarcastic comment about him being my amazing savior and slid off the bed in search of food. I ended up finding the take out container from earlier that held my chicken sandwich I had ordered before the whole vision ordeal in the restaurant. I ate the sandwich as Dean finished watching the end of the horror movie. I then climbed into bed with him and fell asleep to the sound of Dean watching cheesy infomercials. I woke up a couple hours later drenched in sweat. I hadn't been woken from one of my nightmares like was usual for me, I had woken up because my stomach was twisted in knots and I was shaking uncontrollably.

I fumbled for the lamp but ended up knocking it over,  
"Kay?" Dean's voice came through the darkness, "You okay?"  
"Um, I'm not sure."  
He reached across me and set the lamp right before clicking it on. He looked down at me,  
"Babe, you're drenched and shaking like a leaf."  
"Don't worry." I said through chattering teeth, "It's just-"  
I stopped talking as my stomach lurched and made a run for the bathroom. I ended up seeing my earlier meal in a less appealing form. Dean joined me in the bathroom moments later, helping me up and wrapping the comforter from the bed around me.

He lifted me into his arms and walked out the bathroom,  
"We're taking you to see Sammy."  
"Dean, I'm sure it's just stomach flu. Nothing worth waking Sam over."  
"Yea well," he said as he closed the door behind us and the cool November air bit at the skin that wasn't covered by the blanket, "With all these weird things that have been happening, I'm not taking that chance. Plus you're like grey."

Normally I would have been offended about the fact that he pointed out my grayish colour, but I was feeling so terrible that I just concentrated on trying to stop the shaking of my body and allowed Dean to carry me to the room I had been staying in earlier.  
Sam swung the door open looking disheveled and exhausted,  
"Dean? What the hell is going on?"  
Dean pushed his way through the door and laid me down on the bed that was still made,  
"It's just some bug Sam, Dean's just being paranoid." I was speaking mostly into the blanket and my voice was already weak, but Sam managed to hear. He walked over to me and placed a hand on my forehead,  
"You've got a fever." He said looking down at me.  
I groaned and pulled the blanket tighter around myself,  
"Kill me." I moaned  
"It could be food poisoning, did you eat anything bad?" Sam asked,  
"All I've had was that sandwich."  
"You actually ate that?"  
"Yea…didn't you eat yours?"  
"Hell no. It smelled funky and was green around the edges."  
"You ate a rotten sandwich?" Dean asked with a chuckle,  
"Thanks Dean. I'm glad you find me barfing my guts out comedic."  
"Sorry." He said, trying to straighten out his face, "So Sam what do we go."  
Sam shrugged,  
"We'll get her some Gatorade and finish the trip to Bozeman in the morning."  
Dean looked appalled,  
"I don't want puke in my car!"  
"Don't worry Dean; I'll put my head out the window."  
My comment didn't seem to put him at ease. I was fairly insulted that Dean had to think which was more important to him, his girlfriend, or his car.  
The night passed slowly, I spent most of my time either huddled up in a blanket, in Dean's arms, or barfing. Not exactly what I would call fun.

Sam and Dean spent the hours guessing what could be going on in Bozeman and then they played cards, and then Sam fell asleep at the table with his laptop while Dean and I were sound asleep leaning against the wall in the bathroom. I had told Dean that he could just go to bed, but he refused to leave me alone.

I woke up the next morning with Dean's arm around my waist and light streaming in the bathroom window. It reminded me of the day that I woke up after my stomach had been all cut up after a dream and Dean had sewed me shut. That was when I figured out how much I really liked Dean. It was strange that I was once again not up to par, and once again Dean was watching out for me.

I slipped out from underneath Dean's arm as smoothly as I could, I didn't want to wake him since I'd noticed he hadn't been sleeping all that well lately. I tip toed back into the room where Sam was not asleep like I had expected him to be, but instead he was on his laptop typing furiously,  
"Hey," he said as he noticed me, "How are you feeling?"  
I shrugged,  
"A little bit better, but I don't feel very good. Kind of pukey still."  
"Yea. You'll probably be weak for a little while; bad chicken isn't the best thing in the world for you."  
I gave him an incredulous look,  
"You were pre-law right Sam?"  
"Uh, yea. Why?"  
"It just seems more like you're pre-med. How do manage to know so much about everything?"  
"He's a geek boy. That's why." Came Dean's voice from the door of the bathroom,  
"There's nothing wrong with being well-read." Sam muttered mostly to himself as he turned his attention back to his computer.

After a few moments of silence I brought around the subject of the hunt,  
"So when do you want to head out to Bozeman?"  
"Whenever." Was Dean's reply, "Do you think you're up to traveling?"  
I informed him that I was more than ready for travel and to kick some supernatural bad-ass butt. That is, once I wasn't feeling like I was about to vomit up every single thing I ate.  
"What do you think Sam?" Dean asked his little brother, "Do you think we should let her run around the forest?"

Sam looked uncomfortable; I knew how much he hated it when Dean made him break the bad news to me, although I totally and completely knew it was coming. I mean, come on, Dean letting me hunt after I'd spent the night puking? I think not.  
"You should probably just take it easy for a little while before jumping back into it."  
"Fine." I said, well mostly muttered. I was bummed that I wouldn't be able to take part in the fun that is harassing people for information. I had a thought that made me feel a bit better, "Well if you guys need some guy seduced, then I'm your girl."

The two Winchester men gave me peculiar looks, Dean looked like he had swallowed something that wasn't quite going down well, while Sam just looked like he was trying to suppress a laugher with all his will power,  
"We'll keep that in mind." Sam said in a strangled voice as he grabbed his duffle bag and brought them out to the Impala.  
Dean grabbed the keys from me and went to the motel room I had rented and grabbed my stuff before also loading it into the car.  
I strolled out behind them and slid into the backseat behind where Dean and Sam were sitting,  
"How long do you think it'll take us to get there?" I questioned in my inquisitive ways,  
Sam shrugged,  
"Not long, two hours, three maybe."

I nodded and pulled my worn leather jacket, which greatly resembled a smaller version of Dean's jacket, while I fiddled around with Dean's amulet which he had strung around my neck, and tried to gain some of the energy I had lost the previous night.  
"Wake me when we get there." I mumbled before allowing my need for sleep overpower my need to eavesdrop on everything Sam and Dean said.


	24. Chapter 24

I woke up, my face plastered to the leather seat of the Impala and I realized that I was alone in the car. I bolted upright and got out of the car as fast as I could, ignoring the burning sensation on my cheek from where the skin had been stuck to the leather.

I was at an older gas station with only two pumps and a little building that had big windows.

I saw Dean inside the building and immediately headed towards him. He was leaning against the counter and smiling the smile that he only used when he was trying to get me to do something. I could see that he was using it on the ridiculously tall and skinny redhead that was standing behind the counter who was giving him the googley eyes. I walked as fast as I could towards the building before Sam came out of the door and smoothly grabbed my arm as he continued walking away, and dragging me in the process.

"Hey!" I yelled, "What are you doing that for?!"

"Because," Sam said in a low voice, "Dean is trying to get us some information about this hunt. And there's no way that girl is going to be as willing if his girlfriend marches in. Okay? So just take a breather."

I pulled my arm out of his grasp and scowled up at his six foot five self,

"You suck." I said in a very mature fashion

Sam laughed to himself as we walked towards the car, I noticed he was trying to make sure I wouldn't run as fast as I could back to the gas bar and slap that low-cut shirt wearing, red-headed hussy. I mean come on; I'd never do something like that.

Okay. That's a lie. I totally would have if I had thought I could have made it without Sam literally picking me up and dragging me back to the car, kicking and screaming.

I sat in the Impala for what seemed like forever in complete silence, Dean eventually returned to the car with an expression that I couldn't read. He slid into the driver's seat,

"What'd you find out?" I asked

"Nothing that we didn't already know, she tried to be helpful but the only information she had was either from the newspapers that we've read or gossip."

"Yea, I'm sure she wanted to be _real_ helpful." I muttered in a tone heavy with sarcasm

"What's that?"

"Er, nothing."

Dean eased the Impala away from the pumps, pulled out of the gas station and sped along the highway towards Bozeman.

I sat on the seat with my back against the window and my legs, challenged in length, stretched across the dark leather of the seat.

I sat in silence, watching Dean for quite a while. I observed the way his fingers tapped the steering wheel and the way he glanced at Sam and I every once in a while with worry in his eyes. The guy would never be able to find peace and not spend this time worrying about either Sam or myself. I hadn't exactly given Dean any reason to think he didn't need to worry about me up to now, but I promised myself I would make a concerted effort to stay out of trouble and not need any rescuing.

My mind wandered and thoughts of Sam's vision of Dean dying popped into my head and a shiver ran through my body. The thought of losing him was more than I could handle, and the fact that both Sam and I had been having dreams about him dying in different ways was probably the furthest thing from comforting.

I rested my head against the window and allowed myself to relax just a little bit, my body was still weak from my encounter with the rotten sandwich and getting all worked up about Dean and that gas station girl hadn't helped me to find my much needed Zen.

We hadn't been driving for more than forty-five minutes before the car started to splutter and the engine just gave out,

"Uh oh…" I said

Sam started smacking the dashboard in a futile attempt to get the car to start again,

"Don't hit her!" Dean practically screamed

"Dean," I said, following him and getting out of the car, "the only 'her' around here, is me."

Dean popped the lid to the Impala and shot me a dirty look.

Sam chuckled and called out the window,

"You'd be better not to do that. This car might as well be his second girlfriend."

I had pulled a bottle of water out of the backseat and was taking a sip while Sam was talking. I was laughing so hard at his comment that I choked on my water and end up spilling the contents left in the bottle all over myself. After I got over the fact that I was covered in water I turned to Dean with an expression of fake worry,

"Dean, you don't do the things you do with me, with your car, do you? Since Sam did say it was like your other girlfriend."

Dean shot me a dirty look and then continued fiddling around under the hood of the car,

"Everyone's a freaking comedian around here, aren't they?"

I rubbed the back of his neck and watched him check for anything wrong with the Impala,

"See anything wrong?" I questioned

He shook his head,

"There's nothing wrong here, the engine is fine, same with the fan belt and everything else."

"Hey Dean," Sam called from inside the car "I think I found the problem."

We both hopped back into the car,

"What?" Dean demanded,

Sam pointed to the fuel gage that clearly read empty,

"Oh," I chuckled, "This is too good." I flopped backwards against the seat

Sam was laughing too,

"You forgot to put gas in the car?"

Dean looked murderous,

"I was supposed to talk to the hot chick and you were supposed to fill up the car!"

It was my turn to be mad,

"Hey! Girlfriend here, you're not supposed to notice other girls. God."

"I didn't mean that Kay, she's nowhere as hot as you."

"Oh gee, thanks." The fact that he hadn't said anything about her not being good looking wasn't lost on me.

Sam was still defensive from Dean's comment,

"It was not my responsibility. You can't blame me because you forgot to put gas in the car."

Dean shot his brother a look that I was sure would melt the skin off of Sam's face, it was pretty damn intense. I was worried that if I let them continue to stare each other down any longer that I would have to break up a fist fight, so I spoke up,

"Okay, guys. This is no one's fault. Let's just figure out what we're going to do."

"There's a container of gas in the trunk." Dean said,

Sam shook his head,

"No, we used that a couple weeks ago, remember."

I remembered all too clearly the last time the guys had forgotten to put gas in the car and we ended up sitting at the side of the road for hours before either of them remembered the emergency gas in the trunk,

"Well if this isn't ridiculous then I don't know what is."

Dean and Sam played rock paper scissors to decide who would have to walk the two miles to the next town to fill up the container with gas. Dean lost and began walking down the highway, grumbling underneath his breath about it all being Sam's fault.

I watched Dean walk away with a smile on my face until a horrible thought popped into my head,

"Sam! We cant' let Dean walk all the way there by himself!"

Sam didn't look up from the newspaper he had unfolded and was closely studying,

"Why not?"

"Because we keep seeing him die!" I said, my voice raising multiple octaves as I scrambled out of the car and ran to where Dean was walking away from the car about twenty yards away,

"Dean!" Sam called from where he was running right behind me

Dean turn around looking like he was expecting another bickering match with Sam. But his expression changed quickly once he saw the worry that was written all over my face,

"What? What is it?"

I paused, I had no good reason as to why Dean should stay. I mean the truth was a good reason but Sam and I had decided not to say anything about it. Sam however thought faster on his feet than I did,

"I'll walk to the gas station. Kaiden was already complaining about how you two never get to be alone. This way I don't have to hear her complain and you get to spend some time together. Okay?"

Dean shrugged and handed Sam the empty gas container,

"Okay."

Dean started walking back to the car. I shoot Sam an apologetic smile and then followed suit.

I sat in the car only half listening to what Dean was saying as I stared out the car window waiting for something to jump out of the trees we were parked beside and maul the car.

I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep until I woke up with a cry and saw Dean staring at me with concern in his eyes,

"Another dream?" he asked

I didn't say anything, I wasn't sure if my mouth would be able to form words at that moment. Instead I nodded my head. It had been quite close to the one I had a couple times where I was in a morgue where Dean and Sam where dead and Dean had told me that it was my fault. Except this time it was Dean, Sam, George and Isabelle lying dead in the morgue while Fay was standing beside me sobbing, telling me, just like Dean had, that their deaths were my fault.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" he said in a gentle voice as he pulled me towards him

I breathed in the familiar sent of his clothes and closed my eyes for a moment before saying with tears in my eyes,

"I can't be responsible for you dying."

Well that shocked the hell out of him, I think he was expecting something along the lines of 'no, I'm fine' or 'I'll talk to you about it later'

I reached for the door handle and quickly pulled myself out of the car, I refused to let Dean see my cry, again. I leaned against the Impala with my coat putting tightly around me and my arms folded against my chest. The cold November air was killing me, I loved every moment of the summer but late fall and winter were the death of me. And the fact that we were in the far northern areas of the country didn't help.

Dean followed my actions and got out of the car and walking around to where I was standing,

"Kaiden-" he began, but was cut off by the ringing of his cell phone, he flipped it open, "Hello? (pause) Where are you? (pause) How long do you think it'll be? (Pause) Okay, okay, I'll tell Kaiden and we'll see you when you get back. (Pause) Bye"

He came and stood beside me

"Sam's tied up. The town that he walked didn't end up having a gas station. Which I didn't think was possible. Anyways he's getting a lift to the next town over where they do have a station."

I nodded my head and mumbled,

"Okay."

I was still kind of shaken from my dream and I was currently battling with my tears, trying to stop them from rolling down my cheeks. I had been doing my best to keep Dean calm about these dreams, but if I cried every time I had one there was no way he'd be able to relax,

"Are you okay?" he asked as my breath hitched in my throat

"Yea, I'm fine." I said as I started walking away, "I'm just going to go for a walk, okay? I'll be back."

It took a second or two for the fact that I was going to sink into his head,

"You can't just walk off on your own! Besides it'll be dark in a bit."

I shrugged my shoulders, keeping up my pace and he started jogging after me, grabbing my arms once he caught up with me,

"There is something wrong. Tell me!"

I wrenched my arms out of his grasp,

"I want you to leave it alone Dean."

"No! I won't just leave it alone! You need to tell me what the fuck is going on, dammit!"

I was so frustrated with him that all I wanted to do was scream. I didn't end up screaming like I wanted to, but I did let my frustration get the better of me,

"Jesus Dean! I keep seeing you die, all the time. During the day, while I sleep, I can't get a moments rest and-" my voice got very quiet, "And I don't know if I can do this anymore. Something is clearly going on and if I'm the one always seeing you die then it just makes sense that I'm tied to it. I can't have the guilt of your death on me Dean. I can't lose you."

My words hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity where Dean just stood there staring at me and a wind that foreshadowed the winter fast approaching blew my hair, everything was silent.

Well that is until Dean spoke,

"You don't need to do that to yourself." He said simply

"Do what to myself? It's not like I've been asking for these visions."

He shook his head, I obviously hadn't gotten his meaning,

"No, I mean, you don't need to try to protect me. People get hurt, especially in our line of work. It's inevitable."

I stared at him, waiting for him to say something else,

"Well, I hope that wasn't meant to be comforting. 'Don't worry about me Kaiden, I'll die, but it's cool. You'll get over it.' Yea that makes me feel a _whole_ lot better. Thanks."

He rolled his eyes,

"You know that's not what I meant. I mean we all do our best to not get hurt, but when you're, sometimes literally, throwing yourself into harm's way. A couple bumps and bruises are expected."

"I'm not talking about bumps and bruises Dean! I'm talking about you being dead and everyone blaming me. I'm talking about having to burry your body and try to tell myself that I'll be okay 'cause I can get over how I feel about you. But I can't. Okay?"

The tears I had thought had gone away reappeared and I was blinking them back furiously, refusing to let them fall.

Dean grabbed my arm once again, but this time much more gently, he pulled me into his arms and held me close,

"I'm not going to die. I promise you. What do you want me to do?"

"Stop hunting sounds like a good option."

I knew it was far fetched, but a girl can hope,

"Not an option." He said

Okay, maybe it was a little further than far fetched. I pulled back so I could look up at his face,

"Why not? We could all quit and you and I could married and Sam could find a girl and we could live normal lives."

He shook his head,

"We'd always know there was something out there. And I couldn't live with the guilt knowing that there are people dying because I was tired and didn't feel like hunting anymore."

"Yea, I know. But some day you won't be able to do this anymore. What will you do then?"

He shrugged,  
"Whatever I'll be doing it'll be with you. And looking out for Sammy, that's a given. Come on let's go back to the car, you're freezing"

I nodded my head and allowed him to lead me back to the Impala. I slid into the front seat of the car and watched as he turned the key in the ignition and blasted the heat. I let him pull me close, I put my legs across his thighs and rested my head on my shoulder,

"Dear lord I hate the winter."

He laughed,  
"It's not even winter yet, it's still fall."

"You're birthday's coming up." I said, trying to get my mind off the fact that soon snow would be falling and I would be harassing the guys into finding a hunt down south,

"Sure is. Twenty eight years old. How does it feel to be dating someone four years older than you?

I snorted,

"I've dated guys with a bigger age difference, when I was fifteen I dated this guy that was twenty-one. Well it didn't end very well and-" I realized in horror what I was saying and immediately stopped talking,

"Oh no, don't stop telling this story. I'm enthralled."

I rolled my eyes,  
"Yea I'm sure you don't have a million and a half relationship stories."

"Actually I don't. My relationships weren't really relationships."

"What were they? Let's-have-sex-ships?"

He nodded his head,

"Pretty much."

I wasn't one hundred percent sure how I felt about that so I decided to close my eyes and get some rest,

"Wake me if I look like I'm having a nightmare, okay?" I mumbled into his jacket,

"Okay." He said as he soothingly ran his hand through my hair while rubbing my back with the other.

I drifted in and out of a light, peaceful sleep and included me listening to Dean's soft humming to himself. Sam eventually returned and I heard him pouring the gas into the tank and then sliding into the backseat.

Dean, thinking I was sound asleep told Sam all about what I had said earlier during our argument,

"Well that sounds familiar." Sam said with a chuckle,

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean demanded

"Well, she sounds exactly like you. You're always trying to protect the people around you and beat yourself up when they get hurt, even though there was nothing you could have done. Do you remember when Kaiden was in a coma? You didn't even leave your side. It was almost like you were punishing yourself, you barely ate."

I was still leaning on Dean so I felt him shrug,

"What do you want from me? to just not care?"

"No. I want both of you to realize that you are not superheroes and there are some things you just can't do."

"It was my fault she got shot. She shouldn't have had to go through that."

Sam groaned, clearly frustrated with the fact that he was getting nowhere with his attempts to make Dean realize that he can't take responsibility for everything,

"Dean, there was nothing you could have done. There was no way you could have anticipated the Djinn getting the gun and shooting you. And even if you could have you were still bleeding with a bullet in your shoulder, how could you have protected her?"

Dean gently lifted my legs from where they were still draped over his own and put them down on the floor of the car.

He turned the key in the ignition and I felt the car lurch forward as we started moving once again down the stretch of highway. I pretended that the movement of the Impala had been what woke me and I sat up, feigning sleepiness,

"Hey Sam. Have a nice walk?" I asked as I stretched out my muscles that were the kind of stiff that could only result from sleeping in the car frequently.

He laughed,

"Oh yea, I was enjoying it so much I took the scenic route."

It didn't take us too long to get to Bozeman after we got some gas into the car and we were on our way. We pulled into the parking lot of a small country motel that had a pair of deer horns over the door to the reception desk,

"Wow." I said looking up at the horns, "It's, uh, eclectic."

The man standing behind the front desk looked exhausted beyond all means of the word and he had a bag over his shoulder, he looked like he was about to leave. He spotted us and put his bag down,

"If you guys want a room I should tell you that there's no maid or room service right now."

Dean nodded his head and tossed one of his many fake credit cards down on the counter,

"We'll take a room with two queens, thanks."

I leaned against the desk and studied the man for a moment,

"Where are you going?" I inquired, "If you don't mind me asking."

He rubbed a calloused hand over his haggard face,  
"No, I don't mind. I'm going to see my daughter, she's in the hospital."

"Oh, lord I'm so sorry. What happened?"

"She's in a coma. It was some kind of bear attack is what they are saying."

Dean pulled out his Federal Wildlife I.D, which he must have put in his pocket when we were getting out of the car, and flashed it at the man,

"Federal Wildlife sir, we're here about those bear attacks. Do you think we could set up a time a little later on where we could ask you a couple questions?"

He man nodded,  
"I'll be back later tonight. I'll do anything that'll stop this from happening to someone else. They say she'll die you know, if they can't get her heart rate down." He finished checking us in, handed us our keys and walked out the door, still mumbling to himself, "It just don't make any sense."

"Poor guy." I said as we walked into our motel room, carrying our bags, "I don't know if I could handle it if someone I loved was hurt and there was nothing I could do about it." I gave Dean a pointed look, sat on the edge of the bed I had claimed as the one I would be sleeping in and pulled off my shoes.

Sam, who was stretched out on the bed spoke,

"We should get an early start. We have a lot of foot work to do."

I sighed at the thought of all the people we had to track down and question,

"No kidding. Since none of the victims are conscious we have to track down whoever was with them and talk to their family members."

"Well this is going to be fun." Dean remarked as he sat down on the bed beside me and began massaging my overly tense shoulders. Supernatural things just made my stress level skyrocket.

We passed the rest of the evening by ordering pizza and sitting around talking about the hunt and the different possibilities of what could be attacking all these people,

"The elevated heart rate is what I'm really not getting." I said through a mouthful of cheese pizza,

Sam shrugged,

"Whatever got then could have done some sort of ritual."

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I've never heard of a ritual that is used to stress people out." I said with a slight laugh.

I probably shouldn't have laughed at Sam, he got defensive and stopped giving his input,

"Sam." Dean said, "Stop acting like such a woman just because she laughed at you. I laugh at you plenty."

I sensed an argument coming so I cut in,

"I think we've all had a long day and since none no of us really got any sleep last night thanks to me, I vote we try to get some shut eye. Okay?"

I slid under the covers and let myself muse about a life where we didn't hunt demons and Dean wanted to be with me forever. Before I knew it my body was completely relaxed into the mattress and I was sound asleep.


	25. Chapter 25

I stood scowling just inside the entrance of a cave. It couldn't have been even five in the morning, yet I was there with my disheveled hair and clothes that had been haphazardly throw on,  
"See anything Kay?" Dean asked me as he walked towards me from where he had been, deeper inside of the cave.  
I shook my head, I hadn't seen anything, but that also could have been because I didn't really want to go all that far into the cave. I was trying not to let my claustrophobia stop me from doing my job on this hunt. It hadn't disabled me completely, but it was making it damn hard to get anything done,  
"Sorry, I haven't seen anything other than leaves, dirt and my own breath. It's freezing!"

Dean didn't respond, he was deeply involved in looking for anything that would point us in the right direction, as was Sam. I took a deep breath and walked further into the cave, trying to tell myself that the walls would not collapse and kill me.

I began looking around for signs of a supernatural presence just like the two Winchesters, I had no idea if I would recognize a clue if I saw one, unless that clue ended up being Big Foot's footprint. No matter how helpful finding that footprint would be, it was beyond highly unlikely.

We spent a long time walking deeper into the cave as it steadily grew narrower. The only thing that stood between us and the velvety darkness that threatened to drown me was a flashlight Sam had brought with him. I slid my fingers between Dean's as we walked, I was so scared I could barely thing straight but I was doing a pretty good job of hiding it,  
"You're pretty freaked out, eh?" Dean whispered to me  
Okay, maybe I wasn't hiding it as well as I thought I was.

It's pretty funny that I'm scared of so many things and my chosen profession is fighting the things that scare other people. Maybe in a way I'm trying to protect others from feeling the fear that had always had such a tight grip on my life. On the other hand maybe I was just hunting because it had kind of fell into my lap and I was pretty good at it.

We stopped for a few moments, Sam scanning the cave's floors with the yellow beam coming from the flashlight, slicing through the shadows. I unlinked my fingers from Dean's and wandered to stand beside Sam,  
"You noticing the fact that we haven't found a single thing that even gave us the smallest hint as to what is going on here?"  
Sam shrugged,  
"I know. I know. But I feel like there's something here and we'll find it, soon."  
"Yea we better," I mumbled, "'cause I'm so cold I can barely see straight."  
I turned to face Dean who was standing a couple feet away from us, deeper into the cave. I had been giving Dean a warm smile when I saw a rather large outline of a dark figure emerge from behind him and lunge forward.

My legs were glued to the spot as I watched the events unfold, Sam jumped towards Dean as the creature came down on him. This was more than just a clue, this was the real deal and I had no idea what I could do to hurt it. Sam's body connected with Dean and sent the eldest Winchester flying into the cave wall with enough force to render him unconscious. Before I knew it, Sam was laying flat on his back with the creature's massive claws deep into the flesh of his chest. Out of the darkness I could see it's eyes turn a horrible green, and I launched myself in it's direction, hitting it hard enough to force it to stumble back, but it pulled it's self together quickly and attacked.

Its claws stabbed me hard in the left shoulder and I let out a scream of agony before I had the sense to grab my pistol from the waistband of the jeans I was wearing, and fire the entire clip into it. It let out a horrible scream unlike anything I had ever heard.

I ran to Sam and placed two fingers on his pulse point, not leaving his side until I felt his heart beating. It was beating at a ridiculous pace, but that wasn't shocking since the trauma his body had endured. There was blood coating the light brown sweater he was wearing. I crawled over to Dean's side as I felt a steady stream of blood trickle down from my shoulder and saw it pool on the ground in front of me, clearly the wound to my shoulder was considerably more serious that I had previously given it credit for.

My sight had deteriorated to only tunnel vision as I was attempting to wake Dean; there was a substantial about of blood seeping out of a gash across his face from where his head had slammed into the unforgiving cold rock of the cave's walls.  
I pulled out my cell phone to call 911 when I realized that there was no service, we were in the middle of the woods. I let out a string of vicious curses as I threw the phone against the cave wall and watched it shatter into a million pieces. Sam was bleeding out and I knew Dean had hit his head with some serious force; my only option was to get them out of there myself.

I stood up on two shaky legs and slowly began half carrying and half dragging Sam towards the head of the trail that we had followed to get to this point in the woods. I was deeply thankful for the fact that it had only taken us fifteen minutes of a walk to get to the caves, it meant that it would be near forty-five minutes before I could get Sam to help. It worried me that I would be leaving Dean alone during that time, but I also knew that if Sam died, part of Dean would die too and there would be no way for him to forgive me for that.

I pulled Sam along with all my strength for as long as I could bear the pain of my shoulder. I collapsed back onto the pine needles that coated the forest floor, my teeth clenched against the agony shooting through my entire body.

I have no idea how long I laid there before I heard footsteps, and then a voice,  
"Miss?"  
I turned to see a man standing over me with a hiking pack strapped to his back and hiking poles in his hands, this guy was dedicated,  
"Are you okay?" he asked  
I knew how it must have looked to someone who was just walking by, I was bleeding from my shoulder, and Sam was lying unconscious beside me and was bleeding from various wounds in his chest.  
I was grateful as hell to see this man,  
"Thank God!" I exclaimed, "I need you to help me. This man has been seriously injured and I need you to get him back to the head of trails and call an ambulance. Tell them that we have two unconscious men and we need immediate medical attention. Understand?"  
He nodded his head as he tried to take everything in,  
"But you're bleeding. Are you sure you should go back alone?"  
I shook my head impatiently; I didn't have time to explain to this man what was truly going on,  
"What's your name?"  
"Brian."  
"Okay, Brian, there is something big and bad going down and it's not safe for you. This man is going to bleed to death if you don't get him to help. His brother, my boyfriend, has had a serious blow to the head. If either of them don't get medical attention, and mean now, they will die. I can knock you out so you won't be in my way or you can lend a hand. Now either go away or help me."

Without another word he lifted Sam with an impressive lack of difficulty. He gave me a glance and then began walking towards the head of trails.  
I took off back towards Dean at a speed that I had never been able to reach on any of my runs over the years; adrenaline was the best kind of performance enhancer.

When I returned back to the cave Dean was beginning to come into consciousness. I rushed to him and kneeled at his side,   
"Dean? Can you hear me?"  
He groaned and his eyes fluttered open,  
"Kay," he said in a weak voice, "what the hell happened?"  
I shook my head has I helped him to his feet and supported a lot of his weight as we started walking up the trail,  
"I'll explain it all later, I promise."

It took us on the outer edge of thirty minutes to make it back to the head of trails. As we were arriving, three ambulances were pulling into the parking lot and I could see paramedics were rushing to the hiker who was with Sam and another set ran to Dean and I.

They helped Dean onto a stretcher and then another one started leading me towards a stretcher of my own. Up until then I had been running on pure adrenaline, but now that the panic was mostly over, my body was recognizing how much blood it has lost and my legs were like Jell-O. I had torn a chunk of my t-shirt and wrapped it tightly around my shoulder. It had been better than just letting it bleed freely, but since I had tied it on with one arm and in a hurry it was far from a professional job. My tunnel vision had returned as I was being loaded into one of the ambulances I looked up at a young, female paramedic with dark brown hair and kind eyes,  
"I don't care what happens." I said in a stubborn voice, which was pretty weak considering how close to passing out I was, "You treat them first. Understand?"  
She smiled at me in a way that I could tell that she wasn't taking me seriously. She placed an oxygen mask over my face, and before I knew it, the little energy I had left was slipping away and everything faded into darkness.


	26. Chapter 26

"No." I said with a set jaw and firm voice

The doctor who was sitting on a stool beside me looked tired,

"We really need to suture the wounds in your shoulder and it will go a lot faster if we use an anesthetic. Then you can go back to Mr. Winchester."

I shook my head again,

"Listen Doc. I'm only going to say this once, so listen up. I don't want your drugs. Got it?" I said fixing him with my best intimidating stare. I would have been afraid of me if I was him; I was pretty scary looking at that moment. There was dried blood and dirt all over my face, and pine needles and forest crap. The doctors wouldn't let me get the crud off of myself before they patched my shoulder, at a cut on my forehead that I hadn't noticed, up.

Not having any painkillers for something like a couple stitches wasn't a big deal compared to getting shot. And plus there's no way that it would hurt any more than when I had Dean stitch a gash in my stomach shut with a needle and thread in a dirty motel bathroom.

The doctor's pager began to beep and he stuck his head into the hallway, coming back in with a much younger man beside him,

"This is my intern, Dr. Gilmore. He's fully qualified and he'll be doing your sutures today. I've informed him of your medical preferences."

With that he left the new guy and me alone

The intern was maybe thirty with sandy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, he was a pretty boy and he knew it. That had never been my type. So when he began flirting with me, I wasn't interested at all,

"So, do you hike a lot?" he asked with a smile, he had white, straight teeth. But it wasn't the same smile that Dean gave me. Dean's was full of warmth and love. But I could tell this guy just wanted in my pants,

"No. I hate nature."

He laughed, but I kept a straight face, I wasn't joking. When he realized that he was the only one laughing, or smiling for that matter, he coughed and tried to change the subject,

"Those two guys you came in with. How do you know them?"  
I shrugged,

"I met them when I was six."

That seemed to make him perk up considerably. I guess he figured that if I had known them since I was a wee little girl then I wouldn't be harboring any feelings for them. He was right. The feelings I had for Dean weren't harbored at all, they were way, _way_ out to sea.

I lay down on the table and he began stitching up the wounds to my shoulder. I was hoping he would stop talking so I could concentrate on not concentrating on the pain. But he instead started talking even more,

"That's some Grisly attack. You're lucky you only need a couple of stitches. You could have ended up dead."

I had my jaw clenched against the agony of the needle going into my skin and then the thread pulling it tight. I think part of the reason it was less painful when Dean stitched me up in the motel bathroom (I'm not saying it didn't hurt like hell) was because when Dean had done it, my body was rushing with adrenaline, it was still all out of whack from my psycho dream that it hadn't had a chance to calm down. This time it had been almost three hours since that stupid damn beast in the cave took us all by surprise and tried to jump Dean, I had zero adrenaline left in my body and I was feeling every pull of the thread,

"-so," he said, continuing what I was sure was a long line of speech, "I was wondering if maybe you'd give me your number. So I could call you sometime."

I groaned against the pain and he chose to take it as a "Yes I would love to give you my phone number. Please call me any time you want so we can go on one date, shack up. And then I'll spend the rest of my life waiting on you hand and foot and having your babies." And his smile widened even further,

"If you like Italian food I know this great place and I-"

"Look." I said, cutting him off, "I'm not interested, so if you could just finish with the stitches and then I'll be on my way, that'd be great."

His massive smile had turned into a scowl of a four year old that just had been told he couldn't have any cookies. I'll give you one guess as to who was the metaphorical cookie.

He hurriedly finished the sutures, taped some gauze over my shoulder and I was on my way. Not that I was going very far, I walked about thirty feet to the elevator and then down a hall until I was in Sam's room.

Dean was sitting in a hard plastic chair beside Sam's bed. Sam was not doing anything, he was unconscious, and had been since the attack,

"Has the doctor been in here?" I asked as I took his hand into my own and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Dean didn't look away from where Sam was laying on the bed and nodded his head,

"He said we need to find a way to get his heart rate under control."

Sam, just like all the other victims of the creature we had yet to find the name of, had a heart rate that was out of control and causing major problems for his health. The doctors knew he couldn't last long like this

"This is all my fault." He mumbled to himself

I grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look at me,

"Dean. Listen to me. This is in no way your fault. Get it? There was _nothing_ you could have done. You were unconscious. So don't do this to yourself."

His eyes had a hallow quality to them that made me nervous. He was really tearing himself inside for this, he could never just let it go and realize there was nothing he could have done,

"Dad told me I had to save him."

"And you will. We will. Together. Okay? If you really meant what you said about seeing me in your future them you have to let me help you."

He pulled me into his lap and held me closely, resting his head in the hollow between my neck and shoulder. I could feel his hot breath against my skin and I could tell that he was trying to keep his emotions in check. Dean was a control freak and when he couldn't direct how things went, he didn't know how to handle it, especially when it meant he couldn't protect the people he loved.

"Dean." I said as I stroked his hair gently, "Sam'll be okay. I promise. Now you should probably eat something. Do you want to come to the cafeteria with me?"

He shook his head,  
"I'm going to stay here with Sammy. I'm not hungry; you go get yourself something to eat."

I kissed him softly before getting off his lap and headed out of the room. I looked back as I left and saw he had the same blank stare that he had on before.

I was on my way to the cafeteria before I got an idea and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I punched in Fay's number and listened to the ring until the phone on the other end picked up,

"Hello?" it was Fay's voice.  
"Hi Fay. It's me, Kaiden."

"Oh my god, Kaiden, how are you?" it had been a little while since I had talked to her

I rubbed my forehead,  
"I'm pretty good. Okay, that's a lie. I'm awful."

"Kay, what's wrong?"

I told her everything. It was nice to be able to talk about the vision of Dean flat-lining with someone other than Sam, who always seemed to be so level headed about it. I needed to someone to have something else to say other than 'this will just blow over' or 'it'll be okay'

After I finished talking, Fay was silent for many moments before speaking,

"God Kaiden, are you okay?"  
"Yea, I'm fine. The doctor stitched me up and I'm good."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

I sighed,

"Yea I know. Honestly? I'm not doing so hot. If we had just warned Dean about the danger we knew he was in, then maybe Sam would be okay. Dean would have been more on his guard and none of this would have happened."

Up until then I had carefully been keeping my emotions in check and not letting any of my worries or fears enter my consciousness, but when I talked about it to Fay it was too easy to hate myself for what happened,

"Kaiden you can't blame yourself for this. You said yourself how awful it gets when Dean puts all the blame on himself and shuts you out. Don't do the same, you and Sam thought you were doing what was best for Dean and no one can blame you for that."

"Yea you're right," I said with another sigh, "Fay, if something happens to Sam, Dean will never recover."  
It was her turn to let out a breath,

"Yea, I know. We'll just have to find a solution. And fast. Is there anything we can do?"

"There is actually. Do you think I could talk to George?"

We said our goodbyes and she passed off the phone to her husband,

"Hey Kaiden." His warm voice said

"Hi George, now I know you don't know me all that well, but I'm about to ask a favor of you and I'm hoping you'll say yes." I crossed my fingers behind my back in hope that this would go well,

"I might not have known you for very long myself, but you're Fay's best friend and there's nothing we wouldn't do for you, Dean or Sam."  
I smiled, I had known from the first time I had met George that he was sweet and caring, perfect for Fay and their baby girl, Isabelle,

"Would it be awful of me to ask you to come here and help out with this hunt? I heard you and Sam talking about researching and stuff, you seem to know a lot and we don't have our 'geek boy' as Dean calls him."

George laughed softly,

"Absolutely, I'll leave A.S.A.P and I'll be there early tomorrow morning."

I gave him the details of where we were staying and what hospital room we could be found in if we weren't at the motel. And I had a feeling that until Sam was conscious and out of the hospital, we wouldn't be spending a lot of time anywhere but the hospital.

"Thanks George, you have no idea how much this means to me. Give my love to Fay and Isabelle."

We said our goodbyes and I clicked my phone shut, sliding it back into my pocket.

I made the rest of the way to the cafeteria in only a couple of seconds and stood in line, looking a the food that was not up to gourmet standards, but Dean and I were used to eating gross food so this was nothing we couldn't handle.

I grabbed two chocolate puddings, two chicken salad sandwiches and filled up two coffee cups before paying and heading back to Sam's room.

Dean was sitting in the exact same position as he had been when I left the room, still sitting in the chair, still with the glazed expression on his face. I sat down beside him in the chair next to him, I was starting to get seriously worried about him and it didn't help when I passed him the sandwich and pudding and all he said was,

"No thanks, I'm not hungry." He did, however, take the coffee. I assume it was going to be used in attempt to not sleep for a second until Sam was conscious and healthy, "Doctor came back." He said in the same quiet voice he had used to turn down the food,

"And?" I asked

"He said the same as before. Nothing's changed. We need to get him to calm down before his heart fails."

I stood up from the hard plastic chair,

"God! This is all my fault! Sam and I should have told you about the vision, this wouldn't have…"

My words trailed off as I realized what I had done, I had just let the massive, vicious metaphorical cat out the bag.

_Shit!_ I thought

"Should have told me about what vision?" Dean asked, his voice hard, his eyes cold and empty

"Oh, nothing! You know me, just saying random stupid things. I should really get that checked out. Maybe I have a concussion or something. I'm going to go talk to a doctor. Since we're in a hospital and everything it'd be a good place to get it checked out so-"

"Kaiden." Dean said sharply, "tell me. What vision?"

I shifted uncomfortably where I was standing. I really, really, _really_ did not want to be telling him this,

"Sam had a vision of you flat-lining in some hospital." I said quickly

"What?"'

"Sam. He had this dream where you died and then we decided that it would be best not to say anything to you. It was just after that whole thing with Jason and we really didn't think we needed any more drama in our lives. So we thought that by not telling you it would be better and we could watch out for you. That's why we didn't want you walking to get gas when the car ran out when we were on the road." I said it all quickly, hoping to get it over with fast, like pulling off a band-aide

"You lied to me."  
"Well, yea, but I we were doing it to protect you."

"But you still lied to me. And now Sammy might die."

"Dean we're not going to let Sam die. We'll find-"

He cut me off,

"I think you should leave."

I stood there staring at him incredulously. He spoke again,  
"Leave. Go back to the motel room. Leave town. I don't care, just get out of here." His voice was cold and he fixed me with a stare so full of hatred and anger that I stepped back,

"Dean I-"

"Get out."

I grabbed my leather jacket from where it was hanging over the back of the chair I had been sitting on, and walked out of the room, leaving Dean behind.


	27. Author's Note

Okay. As the author of this I have a couple things to say in regards to the reviews that have been made.  
Thank you to everyone who has been commenting and giving your opinions, your thoughts are appreciated.

And now to those of you who have been suggesting things, in a both tactful, and a – well let's just say a less tactful way. I want to clear some stuff up.

I have zero intention of stopping writing this. The last time I checked this was in fact a site for _amateur_ writers. It's not like I am sitting here waiting and hoping for someone to come and offer to publish this. This has been written purely to pass the time and then I felt bored so I ended up posting it.  
Hasn't anyone read something that they didn't like? Okay, I'm not the best writer. I might even be so horrible that you can't even stand to look at another word I've typed and you think I've soiled the show and offended yourself and everyone else who watching Supernatural under the sky, but the point is that I would never, and I mean NEVER, tell someone that their writing is awful, or stupid, an insult to mankind, or many other varied insults I'm sure you very creative people can come up with.

Now I am just one girl, who likes to watch a show and wrote something about it. Please, by all means, light your torches and come running through the streets. But I have done nothing of substance to offend anyone and I do believe this would be a good time for everyone to take a deep breath. I'm pretty sure me having written a Fan Fiction about a show that isn't exactly about how the show is isn't the end of the world. Now please, stop me if I'm wrong, but am I not allowed to revise things and change them to my liking? And if you were wondering, the answer to that is, "Yes RooftopsAndInvitations, you can revise whatever you want, I love every syllable you write!"

And now moving on to Kaiden being a Mary-Sue and me just wanting to place myself in these situations, for the record, I am nothing like Kaiden, nor do I want to ever be like her. Therefore, I'm not sure how this would constitute as an attempt to work myself into their story. (Oh no! But it's not their story. I've royally screwed the pooch on that too. My deepest sincerities.) And, another thing, wouldn't you have to know me to be able to judge me, at all? For example by telling me what I'm trying to do? I was not aware that I was "obsessed with the hotness of the characters mutilating and twisting them to meet the needs of her own self-inspired creation." (Thank you to I'llkickyourass for such a…grammatically correct…statement) I would appreciate it if you would hold off on your accusations of me just trying to insert myself into nice little make believe situations until you know me. Which, to be quiet honest, would never happen because the two people who have in fact judged the hell out of me, would not be able to get past your deeply engraved opinion of who you think I am. Oops, there I go, judging you for judging me. I apologize; I don't take very well to sinking to other's levels.

To 'Jade and Diamonds" I would like to thank you for your suggestions, although attacking Starshine26, I believe that was seriously unnecessary. The point she was making (and I'm not just saying this, I have in fact talked to her) was that there is a difference between being rude, and being helpful. For example, telling someone the only way to save their fiction is by completely revising it or deleteing it, is rude. I would like to point out though, that you, Jade and Diamonds, seem to have a pretty good time judging and critiquing others, but you have no work of your own posted. As anyone who has written things and then put it up for complete strangers to comment on, it's not easy. So I would like to invite you to please, post something and show me how it should be done.  
Now I do hope that I haven't offended anyone but stating my true feelings, but I have worked pretty damn hard on this and I'm not one to take crap like that lying down. Okay?  
Thanks and have a nice day,  
-RooftopsAndInvitations-


	28. Chapter 27

A/N: Hey Everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to get this up, exams and huge summative projects have been wreaking havoc with my writing time. I just want to say thanks for reading and please tell me what you're thinking,  
Thanks,  
RooftopsAndInvitations

--------------------------------

I caught a cab back to the motel, the entire ride I just stared out the window, watching the streetlights fly by in a blur of light, with a mix of emotions battling for my attention. I was mad, madder than I had expected myself to me. Where did Dean get off being pissed at me? I was only trying to protect him, and the first thing he does is kick me out.

I focused entirely on the anger churning in my stomach instead of the regret and sadness that I had been doing my very best to shove into the back of my mind.

The cab pulled up to the motel, I passed the cab driver the hefty fee that had been blinking at me from the meter in the front seat, and walked towards the room.

I unlocked the door and slid into the dark room, it seemed like it had been weeks since I had been there, not mere hours. I was packing up my things when I pulled out a pair of Dean's boxers and one of his T-shirts from my duffle bag. I was suddenly hit with the fact that Dean had essentially broken up with me, he didn't care what I did or where I went; it was over between us.

I gave myself a mental shake, now was not the time for me to have an emotional break, there were more things than I could count that needed to be done. I routed around the room for a phone book. After finding one I flipped through it until I found the section listing all the motels and hotels in the area. I picked one, finished packing up my bag and pulled out my cell phone and dialed Fay's number,

"Hello?" Came her groggy voice, I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was only 7p.m, not late enough for her to have been in bed,

"Sorry, did I wake you?"  
She recognized my voice immediately,

"Of course not Kaiden, well, yes, but I was just grabbing a nap while the baby was sleeping. So what's up?"

"Nothing's changed since I talked to you last. I just need to get a hold of George and I don't have his cell number."

She rattled off his number and we talked only for another minute or two before saying our goodbyes.

I punched in the number that Fay had given me and listened to the phone ring until George's voicemail picked up,

"Hey George, its Kaiden, I was just calling to tell you that I'm not going to be at the motel I told you about earlier I'm going to be at the Pine Ridge motel, it's 243 Webber Road. Call me when you're close and I'll give you the room number. Ok, thanks, bye."

I flipped my phone shut and slid it back into my pocket. After grabbing my duffle bag I headed out the door of the room. I locked the door and slid my key under the tiny gap between the wood and the ground.

The Pine Ridge was only a few miles away from where I was standing so I decided to walk instead of calling another cab, besides I was really low on cash and I didn't liked using fake credit cards all that much. They left too much chance for someone to figure out what was going on and call me on it, and jail time was not something I was interested in.

It took me just over an hour to get to my destination, I probably could have made it there faster, but I was carrying my duffle bag and that wasn't exactly the lightest thing in the world. I checked in at the front desk and took the key that the bored lady in her mid forties handed to me.

It was strange being in a room with only one bed, I was so used to there being in a room with two queen beds and the constant conversation between the two brothers that the silence was deafening.

I flopped down on the king sized bed that was in the middle of the wall furthest from the door. I lay there just staring up at the ceiling for many moments before my cell phone started playing an annoyingly perky jingle from my pocket.

I pulled out it of my jeans and flipped it open,

"Hello?"

"Hey Kaiden, it's me, George."

"Oh, hey George, how far out are you?" I asked

"I've been making pretty good time I think I'll be there in about four or five hours. If that will be too late I can always get a room and we can talk in the morning."

"No." I said quickly, I took a deep breath, "I mean I just want to get to work on fixing this as fast as possible. If you need to get some sleep then by all means get a room. But I'm fine with staying up. I'm in room 13."

"Okay, I'll see you in a couple hours."

"Bye."

I tossed my phone on the bed beside me and rolled over to lay on my stomach. I hadn't even turned on the lamp in the room yet so I just closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep  
------------------------------

I woke what seemed to be only minutes later to knocking on my door, I groggily made my way to the door and opened it a crack.

George was standing in front of me looking exhausted but he still smiled when I opened the door all the way,

"Kaiden, how have you been?" His black hair was slightly longer than it had been the last time I saw him, and he looked like laundry day was coming up fast, his jeans were ripped and his T-shirt and sweater looking a little worse for wear. He was taller than I remembered, probably 6'3, and looked like he could bench-press me with ease.

I shrugged, "I've been better, yourself?"

"I'm doing okay. Exhausted, the baby is keeping us up all night ever night. I'm hoping this is a phase she'll come out of quickly."  
I laughed,

"Yea, I've heard they tend to do that."

"Oh," he said as he walked into the room and put his duffle bag down on the floor, "I'm supposed to give you subtle hints that you should get married and have kids. So this is me being sneaky, okay?"

"Oh yea," I said with a snort, "you're every-day espionage sneaky. Can you explain to her that just because I'm not married and raising a herd of children doesn't mean I'm going to be a maiden for the rest of my days?"

"Fay knows that. Besides, she's got hope for you and Dean."

At the mention of Dean's name my stomach clenched and my knees wobbled just the slightest bit. I had been doing my very best not to think about him, so when George brought him up so casually I had a strong urge to tell him everything that had happened. I realized how ridiculous this would be because I barely knew the man and we had _MUCH_ more important things to worry about over my love life.

He gave me a questioning look and I realized I had been standing there, staring at him with my mouth open.

I quickly snapped it shut and attempted to compose myself,

"So, first things first, we need to find out what this ugly son of a bitch is."

George continued to look at me in the same manner for a few more seconds before speaking,  
"You're right. Do you have any ideas? Were there any markings or obvious features?"

I shrugged, "Nothing that really stood out to me, other than its massive claws that is."

He chuckled,

"Yea, I would've noticed it's claws when they were inches deep in my shoulder."

"No kidding."

We talked for a few more minutes before he pulled out his laptop and a stack of ancient looking books that weighed a ton,

"What?" I asked, "Were they all out of the travel size?" He laughed and then began leafing through the pages.

We got into serious work around 12:30am and there was no sign of anything that might even resemble what had been causing the trouble in Bozeman until five hours later,  
"This is it!" I exclaimed, jabbing my finger at a weathered picture in one of George's books.

He came from the chair tucked beside the small table to where I was sitting on the bed and looked at the book over my shoulder,

"A Donacaigh? Those things are vicious sons of bitches."

"I know George. Hence the stitches."

He didn't reply to my comment, he had taken the book from where it had been sitting on my lap and began reading it,

"The only way to kill it is to decapitate it with a silver sword."

I made a disgusted face,  
"Why can it never be something like 'ask it nicely to leave'? Why does everything have to be so damned difficult?"

"If it wasn't hard then there would be millions of hunters and then all the bad guys would be dead. We'd be out of a job."

"Sometimes I wish that I was out of a job." I mumbled to myself,

"What was that?" he had really good hearing,

"Nothing. Where can we get this sword? It's not like they're sold in every shop around town."

He finished reading the page with all the information on the Donacaigh and shut the book with a heavy thud,

"I saw a medieval times accessory store on my way into town, there might be one there."

"Who would want to go to a medieval times store?" I asked in complete confusion,

He shrugged,

"Everyone has a hobby."

"Let's go then." I was walking to the door when he spoke again,  
"Kaiden, do you know what time it is?"

I glanced over at the clock and saw it wasn't yet six in the morning. No shops would be open at this time,

"It's Sunday so the shops won't be open 'till later, we can head over there around eleven. Now, when was the last time you had a good night's sleep?"

This man was completely and totally Fay's match. He had the ability to notice other people's subtle, and not so subtle, emotions and matched them to a reason. It was a little unnerving.

"Uh," I said, racking my brain for a time when I had slept soundly and for a reasonable amount of time, "I have no clue. But you can relate to that, right?"

"Yea, I can. But the difference is that I have a baby who cries all night. What's your excuse?"

"How about gut-wrenching, terrifying visions and nightmares?"

He nodded his head,  
"Sounds like a good excuse to me."

George managed to convince me that nothing world altering would happen if I grabbed a couple hours of sleep. And he promised that if anything did happen that he would absolutely wake me.

I laid down on the bed and my eyes were sliding shut when he spoke again,

"Kaiden?" he asked,

"Hmm?"

"I was wondering, why hasn't Dean called or something? I figured him to be a pretty protective kind of guy."

"I – uh. I told him not to call, I said I would talk to him if we found something. I can talk to him later. He's busy with Sam."

George didn't say anything else, he just turned back to the book and I closed my eyes and drifted into what I hoped would be a dreamless sleep.  
------------------------------

I woke later on to strong hands shaking me,  
"Cut it out Dean." I mumbled into my pillow. I didn't feel well rested, my body was screaming at me for more sleep.

The hands kept shaking me no matter how many times I told them to stop it out,

"Kaiden, it's me, George. You need to wake up."

My eyes flew open and realization dawned, it wasn't Dean who was shaking me, it was George. Dean wasn't even talking to me anymore.

I put a strained smile on my face and sat up on the bed, rubbing my eyes and brushing my hair away from my face,

"Time to go get that sword?" I asked

He shook his head,

"Nah, I got it myself. You were sound asleep and you looked so exhausted, I figured it was best to just let you sleep. I was right though, you slept all day, it's nine p.m."

"Oh," I said uncomfortably, "uh, thanks."

There was something about his being so considerate that weirded me out. I managed to open up to Dean but we were dating. _WERE_ dating, past tense, I had to remind myself of that. Anyways, I figured that opening up to Dean was easier because I knew him, having George notice my weaknesses struck me as being dangerous, I didn't really know him.

"No problem, so I was thinking we should head out. I mean, if you're feeling up to it."

I stood up from the bed and grabbed my coat from where it had been tossed on the carpet beside the bed, I didn't need to put on my shoes because I had slept in them, I was ready to go.

George lead me out to his truck, it was a big black Dodge that stood so far off the ground I was doubting that I would be able to get in,

"What's with the monster truck?" I asked, referring to its height

"What?" he asked in confusion before he figured it out, "Oh, I do a lot of back country driving and stuff, it's better for rough terrain. I can give you a boost if you want."

There was no way I was going to let him give me a leg up into the truck so I struggled on my own, climbing and clawing my way into the cab of the vehicle. I buckled my seatbelt and laid my head back on the seat, winded from the effort of getting in; being short definitely hindered my ability to do some things in the world of hunting,

"So, how far are we from where the Donacaigh attacked you guys?" George asked.

I shrugged,  
"Not far, less than thirty minutes I think."

He nodded and we drove most of the way in silence, I was off in my own little world and his gaze was locked on the pavement in front of the car. When I was done thinking my own random thoughts, I mentally came back into the truck and realized I hadn't asked anything about this creature,  
"So what's the deal with this Donacaigh thing?" I inquired

"They're pretty nasty, they attack people and then there is some kind of way that they attach themselves to the person. There are many different theories, the most popular is that there is some kind of poison on the end of their claws. Anyways, they put the person into some kind of coma where they are seeing their worst fears. Or at least that's the rumor. And so these people are in really high stress, the Donacaigh feeds off their terror and that's how it gets stronger. It beat your asses probably because it's strong right now since it's been feeding off so many people."

I nodded as I took all the information in, that was horrible, Sam was seeing his worst nightmares and I was pretty much sitting in the throne of blame, fabulous.  
"So why now? Why haven't there been more attacks in the past?"

"There have been some. But that particular trail just re-opened, it was closed for a long time because there were so many deaths, from the Donacaigh, but no one knew that, so they figured it would be safe for them to re-open it."

"Wonderful." I said

He laughed, and I realized that I didn't really know anything about him,  
"So tell me about yourself, you're my best friend's husband, yet I know nothing about you."

He shrugged,  
"There's not much to tell. I was a Navy SEAL for five years. I was planning on staying with that career until my father was killed. I went back to see my mom and I looked into the investigation a bit, even though I wasn't really supposed to. There was something weird about it, he was completely torn apart, and, well, it turned out to be a Werewolf. After that I was so angry I got all the information I needed and killed every supernatural thing I could get my hands on. I was really angry for a long time, then I met Fay." His mouth which had been set in a straight line turned up slightly at the edges just talking about his wife, "She really helped me through my rage, and you know the rest."

"Wow." Was all I could say for a few minutes before another question popped into my head, "How old are you?"

"Thirty-five in three weeks."

I laughed,  
"You're twelve years older than me, but it doesn't feel like there's that big of an age gap."

"Really?" he said with a slight chuckle, "It feels like I'm babysitting."

"Hey!" I said indignantly

We talked about ourselves for the rest of the drive, swapping stories until we pulled into the parking lot at the head of the trails and got out of his truck.

We went around to the back of the vehicle and he pulled a long sword out of the bed,

"Would it really know the difference if it wasn't silver? Honestly, is that what's going to make or break killing this thing?"

He laughed,

"Apparently the information in that book was a little off, the sword needed to be pure silver and blessed with this special charm. It was complicated and time consuming. I wanted to just shoot the damned thing, instead of using this stupid sword."

We walked in silence down the trail, the beams of our flashlights cutting through the darkness that was so complete in the forest. Without the lights, the dark would have come down on us like a black curtain.

Eventually we reached the cave and I marveled that I had managed to drag both Dean and Sam such a distance even with an injured shoulder.

We stepped inside the cave and I immediately felt apprehensive, both of the small space and in the fear of what happened the last time I had been there.

George motioned for me to stand back, he recognized that my shoulder still wasn't up to par and was trying to keep me safe, or as safe as was possible. I was standing in silence for many moments, with my flashlight off, waiting for something to happen, when a massive creature jumped out of the shadows towards him. It knocked him backwards into the hard stone wall of the cave, sending his flashlight rolling,

"Kaiden!" he yelled, "I need light!"

I quickly flipped on the flashlight and pointed it in his direction. I shined the beam into the creature's eyes, it stumbled backwards away from George, clearly it was sensitive to light. George lunged towards the Donacaigh, and they both went sprawling, the creature slashed its claws across George's face.

I pulled my pistol from where it was tucked into the wait band of my jeans, nestled safely against my lower back, and I fired two shots into the creature, being careful not to kill my best friend's husband in the process. With the creature distracted, George immediately swung the sword and sliced cleanly through the Donacaigh's head, sending it rolling across the cave floor.

The two of us stood staring at each other for many moments before he spoke,

"I could really go for some bacon and eggs." He said out of the blue

I laughed. I was really beginning to like George.

Dragging the sword behind us, we walked back out of the cave, first we would check on Sam, and then we would get food  
----------------------------


	29. Chapter 28

A/N: Hey guys. I'm really sorry that it has taken me so long to get this up. I've been insanely busy, I promise that from now on I'll try to get posts up without months inbetween them  
Thanks,  
RooftopsAndInvitations 

"She wants me to do _what_?" I demanded, turning to fix George with a stare.

He sighed,

"Fay wants you to come stay with us for a while. She doesn't want to see you hurting like this."

"Woah, woah, _woah._" I said, waving my hands as I signaled him to stop talking, "Fay hasn't _seen_ anything. All she knows is what you've told her, you nosey little parker."

George Richter had probably never been told he was a nosy parker. I don't think terms like that get tossed around when one is a Navy SEAL. I'm sure there's much more manly grunting and flexing of muscles. Saying things like 'Black Hawk is airborne, I repeat Black Hawk is airborne' and 'Commence operation take-down at six hundred hours.'

He was defending himself, but I wasn't really listening. I was too busy imagining George running around a jungle, speaking in code.

I snorted and earned myself a strange look from him,

"I'm being serious here Kaiden. Every time you see Dean you look like you're going to pass out. And he just looks like he's about to be sick."

I shrugged,

"It sounds like a healthy relationship to me. Now, shouldn't you be heading home to your wife and child?"

He fixed me with a hard stare for many moments,

"She's worried about you Kaiden. Fay I mean. And I am too; I've gotten to know you pretty well in the week since Sam woke up. Neither of us wants to see you hurt. I'm going to be around my motel room until six tonight, if you end up changing your mind."

I waved him off,

"Thanks George. I'll see you later."

I turned and walked towards my own motel room, Dean and Sam were staying next door and as I sat down on the bed I could hear the familiar drone of the television in their room.

I stared at myself in the mirror across from the bed,_you're the one who screwed everything up. So you can't point the blame at anyone else. You knew that Dean hates when people hide things from him_,I thought to myself. These were all things I knew.

Sam had been making noise in the past couple of days, he wanted to know what had happened between Dean and myself, but neither of us had the energy to explain what had happened. Poor Sam, still weak from his stay in the hospital, he always seemed to have a slightly queasy expression on his face

I hadn't realized how thin the walls really where until I could hear Sam and Dean arguing right through the drywall,

"What did you do?" Sam demanded

Dean didn't reply but I assumed that he had an expression on his face saying 'what do you mean?'

"What did you do to make Kaiden break up with you?"

"Sammy, it's really none of your business. And I didn't do _anything_." He sounded exhausted and for a moment I felt bad for him, only the briefest moment though.

"Did you have sex with some girl?" Sam asked, his voice rising, "She wasn't giving you any so you had to go screw some bar slut?!"

I had never heard Sam so angry in all the years I knew him, it was weird to hear him talking like that. He was so certain that it had been Dean's fault that our relationship fell apart.

His words sunk in and it hit me, Sam knew all about Dean and me not having sex. Well if that wasn't uncomfortable for me, then I had no clue what was. Although, it wouldn't be all the hard for him to figure out, he had been sleeping in the same room as us after all. He would have had to be deaf, blind and dumb not to know if we had been, having sex that is.  
"You don't know what the hell you are talking about Sam!" I heard Dean yell and I knew I had to do something before it erupted into a full-fledged fist fight.

I ran out of my motel room without even bothering to put on a pair of shoes. I began banging on their door with my fists, loudly,  
"I know you guys are in there." I said, "I can hear you fighting!"

The door swung open and Dean stood in front of me, looking agitated and exhausted. I took a step backwards and my foot came down on a piece of jagged glass, which embedded itself into the sole of my foot,

"Ow!" I yelled,

Dean quickly rushed to my side and helped me hobble into the room, I shrugged him off once I was inside. I was too aware of how close he was to me. I was finally getting used to being away from him and I didn't want to screw things up by ending up making out with him or something,

"I'm fine." I said as I sat down on one of the beds and turned to face Sam, "Do you guys have a band-aid that I could borrow?"

My foot had begun to bleed steadily and Sam returned from the bathroom carrying a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, some cotton pads, and an assortment of band-aids.

He patched me up quickly, removing the glass and cleaning out the cut. I couldn't help but notice Dean hovering around by the door of the room, looking about ready to run as fast as he could away from the motel,

"Somewhere you need to be, Dean?" I asked, referring to his apparent need to leave.

He looked uncomfortable,

"No. I'm-uh-I'm fine. How's the foot feeling?"

"It's fine. Sam's mighty good at patching things up."

"Yea. Well I think I am going to go out – to get some, uh, some coffee. I'll see you later."

Dean quickly exited the room, closing the door quietly behind him,

"Wow." I said, "He really hates being around me."

Sam sighed, "What the hell happened between you two?"

"Nothing." I said quickly, too quickly.

I knew Sam had the right to know what had happened between me and his big brother. But even though I knew he had the right to know, I was still hesitant about telling him the truth. I knew he would probably blame himself, because that's what Sam did.

"He cheated on you, didn't he?" His eyebrows were knitted together and he had a dark expression on his face.  
I shook my head,  
"No Sam, he didn't – I. It was my fault."

"What happened?"

"He found out. About us knowing he was going to be attacked. When he found out he dumped me."

I tried to pretend that it didn't bother me by giving a nonchalant shrug. But I couldn't help a few tears from seeping out from my eyes. I had been trying my very best to act like the whole break-up thing wasn't bothering me at all, but the honest to God truth was that it was pretty much tearing me apart inside. It sounded like something N'sync would write a song about. I resented the fact that my life had turned into a cheesy boy band song.

"I'm okay" I said, but it ended up coming out suspiciously sounding like a sob. I was losing my grip on my emotions, and that made me want to cry even more.

Sam went to pull me into a hug, but instead I hopped off the bed as quickly as I could,

"Uh, thanks for what you're trying to do. But I don't do the whole feelings thing. So, I'm going to go do something, somewhere else."

I walked/hobbled towards the door when Dean stepped into the room, carrying two coffees and a brown bag

"Oh," he said, "I didn't think you'd still be here. I would have gotten you some coffee if-"

"It's fine." I said quickly, cutting him off as I headed out the door, "Thanks for fixing up my foot, Sam."

I smiled at Sam and saw the angry expression on his face had darkened further and he was looking like he was about to murder Dean.

I closed the door behind me and I could hear Sam's voice rising in anger,

"You know Dean, I let you get away with a lot of bullshit, but this is too much. She was trying to keep you safe!"

Dean was pissed, I knew he hated it when people questioned his actions,

"She lied to me!" he yelled, "She had no right to keep that kind of information from me!"

I was standing outside the room, leaning against the wall when I heard a body being slammed into the wall behind me,

"Got damn it Dean!" Sam roared in a voice I had never heard him use before, "You son of a bitch, you know she was doing it because she wanted to keep you safe. You can't blame her for that when you would do exactly the same thing."

The tears were pouring down my face as George walked out of his motel room, carrying an ice bucket,

"Hey," he said as he came towards me, "Are you okay?"

I shook my head,

"Yes. Well, no. But I will be." I smiled and wiped away my tears, "God, I bet Fay didn't tell you how much of a head case I am."

He smiled gently down at me.

"Would it be totally awkward if I asked for a hug right now?" I asked as he and I started walking away from where Dean and Sam continued their argument. I wasn't sure if I was being weird by asking for a hug from him, but I was having some kind of emotional break at the time, so a hug would've been good.

George laughed and pulled me into him,

"Everything will work out."

"Can you promise that?" I asked as he released me from the hug. I was feeling majorly out of it, so having someone being completely sure of them selves was nice.

"Do you want to know what I really think you should do?"

I rolled my eyes,

"No George, I want you to make something up for me. Of course I want you to tell me the truth, God."

He chuckled but then got serious,

"You should tell him how you really feel. You've been all over the place this week, and I think that if you really told him off or if you told him that you still love him, whatever the truth is, that it'll make you feel better."

Woah, those were not words I was expecting from the man who knew how to kill with his bare hands. I wondered briefly if they also taught them how to talk to emotional lunatics during their training to be SEALs.

I paused for a moment,

"Hey, who said I ever loved him?"

"Whatever." He said, rolling his eyes. I knew how exhausting it was to put up with me.

I nodded my head, he was right, I was bugging him but he was bang on. And I disliked that because I couldn't figure it out myself.

I saw Sam storm out of the room he was sharing with Dean, and I saw my opportunity,

"Thanks for the advice George." I called over my shoulder as I walked determinedly towards the motel room that Dean was inside, "I think I'll take it."

The door was unlocked so I swung it open without even bothering to knock. Dean was sitting on the edge of the bed I had been sitting on earlier, with his head in his hands.

I surprised him when I came in and he jumped up off the bed,

"Kaiden I-"

"No Dean." I said, "It's my turn to talk. Okay?"

I didn't' wait for him to answer me, I just barreled on,

"Yea, so I kept things from you, big deal? I recall you and Sam not telling me that Sam had a vision about my father dying. Isn't that exactly the same thing? So I am so damn sick of your hypocrisy. If you didn't want to date me anymore, that's fine. But don't use me trying to protect you as your reason. Because we both know that's bull shit."

We stood their in silence for many moments, it had felt nice for me to get out what I was really thinking, but as I stood their breathing hard from my minor freak out, I was wishing I could take it all back.

He stood in front of me looking very tired for a long time, but finally he spoke,  
"Is that what you really think?" he asked, "That I just, didn't want to date you anymore."

Okay, this was getting way to close to the realm of emotional vulnerability. I had almost been okay with going there with Dean before the whole painful break up, but now there was no way I was going to let him poke and prod my feelings.

I shrugged,

"I just figured that-"

Dean cut me off as he closed the gap between us, slid his hands around my hips and covered my mouth with his lips.

He kissed me hard, leaving no doubt in my mind as to what he wanted.

For a long time after Jason I didn't think I would be able to ever be with someone that way again. Not just emotionally, but physically as well. Right then I was comfortable with everything that was happening and going to happen.

He pulled back from me for a moment, breathing as hard as I was,

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking into my eyes

I nodded my head and kissed him again, and for the first time in a long time, I felt no fear.


	30. Chapter 29

"No." Sam said to me as I grinned wickedly at him from across the table,  
"Oh come on Sammy, its fun." I said as I looking for the next contestant

"It's not fun." He said, "It's ridiculous, and don't call me Sammy."

I rolled my eyes and waved him off, he was no fun. If he wasn't going to participate fully in me finding him his match, then I was going to do it without his input.

We were sitting at the Roadhouse owned by Ellen, and I was having a good time. Which was pretty shocking since that meant Jo was somewhere around as well. I had gotten over most the animosity I felt towards her.

Dean and I weren't breaking up any time soon, and she seemed to have gotten that into her head. I'm not saying we were going to be best buddies or anything; I just wasn't going to be forced to smother her in her sleep.

"Kaiden, don't get me wrong. I'm really glad that you and Dean are back together and are happy. But that doesn't mean I need to be set up."

I shrugged,

"It's not that you _need_ to have a girlfriend, Sam. But honestly, how long has it been since you've had a _real_ relationship?"

"Or more importantly," Dean said as he sat down beside me and passed me a cup of coffee as he placed a glass of beer in front of Sam, "When was the last time you got laid?"

I smacked Dean upside the head, "I can't believe you said that."

Dean shrugged,  
"It's not my fault. It's a priority."

"Of course," I said with my voice dripping with sarcasm, weighing the options with my hands, "It's a hard choice, I mean, who can chose between hot sex and a real, loving relationship? I know I can't."

"That's the best thing about our relationship, Kay. We don't have to choose."

I turned bright red at his words and smacked him upside the head once again.

I took a sip of my coffee as Dean took a long swing of his beer. My eyes scanned the Roadhouse to see if there was anyone worth setting Sam up with. Jo sauntered by the table, apparently she hadn't fully gotten the whole Dean being completely and totally off limits thing into the small functioning section of her brain.

I spotted a girl about 5'9 with dark, brown hair and my matchmaking instincts sprung into action. I stood up from my seat and made my way across the room to where Ellen was serving drinks at the bar,

"Hey Ellen, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure hon, what d'ya need to know?"

I pointed to the girl I had spotted earlier, she was now sitting by herself,

"Can you give me the low-down on that girl?" I asked

She put the towel that she had been using to dry her hands down on the bar counter in front of her,

"That's Keira Morrison. She's a damn fine hunter. Only been in the game a coupla years."

I nodded,

"She doing the whole dark and broody thing?" I didn't want to set Sam up with someone who was equally as prone to brooding as he was. That would just be one glum relationship

Ellen shook her head,

"She's really upbeat. Which is pretty surprising considering what happened to her."

_Oh, _I thought to myself, _she may not be glum, but this chick's gonna have major baggage._

"What happened to her?" I couldn't help myself from asking,

"Apparently she found her brother after he'd killed herself. I could only imagine what that would do to someone."

I nodded my head. Well, if Ellen said she was upbeat I was going to believe her. Someone like her would probably do Sam some good.

"Why are you asking?" Ellen inquired,

I slid onto a barstool in front of her,

"I think Sam needs a girlfriend. And I know that I shouldn't meddle and all that jazz, but Sam's been alone for too long. He hasn't even had a real girlfriend since Jessica was murdered. I'm setting him up and I don't give a rat's ass what he thinks."

I was completely prepared for Ellen to tell me that I had no right sticking my nose into Sam's business, but instead, she laughed,

"It's about time a girl was in Sam's life. And not in the way you are, I mean as someone who loves him. I may watch him from the sidelines but I know what's going on."

I nodded my head, Ellen was a smart women, she knew the on-goings of her roadhouse.

I chuckled to myself; it was funny that every single person that I knew who was a hunter was screwed up in some significant way.

The next morning I woke up feeling strange, I removed Dean's arm from where it was slung across my stomach, and sat up.

I looked over to the bed beside the one I had been sleeping in and saw that Sam hadn't returned last night. I immediately pushed my strange feeling out of my mind and focused on the lack of Sam's presence.

"Dean," I said as I shook him, "Dean where the hell is Sam?"

He shot up in bed, looking wildly around before he had a moment to think and he sunk back onto the mattress,

"Sam was with that chick. I bet he's still with her."

For some reason it was mildly disturbing to think of Sam with some girl. I mean, I knew that I had set them up and Ellen gave the all clear. But I thought of him as a brother and, it was just too weird.

I stopped being freaked out with the possibility of Sam having sex for a moment and started counting. _Oh shit_, I thought to myself as I turned to face Dean, my eyes round and face pale,

"Uh Dean," I asked as he lay on the bed, with his eyes closed, "how long ago was it, when we, uh, started – you know, having sex?"

"I dunno." He said as he opened his eyes and tried to pull me towards him, "But it's sure been an awesome couple of weeks if you ask me."

Weeks. It had been, weeks.

The entire world seemed to tilt as my head became very light.

"Woah," Dean said, sitting up and wrapped a steady arm around my waist "Kaiden, what's wrong? You're white as a sheet and you look like you've just seen a ghost."

I pulled myself together quickly and moved off the bed – and away from Dean, who was looking at me like I was some kind of lunatic.

I pulled on some clothes and laced up my shoes,

"I going to go to the – I need, uh. I'm going out. I'll see you in a bit. Do you mind if I take the Impala?"

He still was looking at me like I was out of my mind, but he tossed me the keys to his beloved car.

I caught them and walked out the door. I drove the car down the highway to the nearest drug store and stood staring at all the pregnancy tests in front of me. My mind cut to that shampoo commercial where the lady was standing in the isle of shampoo and the shelves go on for miles, with so many options.

I had no clue why people needed this many different kinds of pregnancy tests. All the choices started to make me light headed and I was feeling kind of panicked so I pulled out my cell phone from my pocket and dialed Fay's number.

George picked up. Of course,

"Hello?" he said in his masculine way that I wanted no where near the massive girl issues I was having at that moment.

"Hi George," I said in a voice considerably higher pitched that my regular one, "its Kaiden. I need to talk to Fay."

He passed the phone to his wife and I heard them talking in a muffled voices, but I heard George say, "She sounds upset."

"Hey Kaiden, what's up?" Fay asked

"There are too many of them!" I said very loudly and the lady that was re-stocking the shelves looked at me in an alarmed way so I lowered my voice, "What's with all of these choices? Why does it matter if you want results in an hour or in a minute and who cares if it's a plus or a minus or if the strip turns pink or blue. Why does it matter?

I was losing my control and my voice was getting pretty near to hysterical, the lady at the end of the isle was staring at me again, "Is there a better one? If they are all the same then why make a bunch, so what one is the best? And why do they come in boxes of two, are people really that stupid that they have to stock up for the next time they think they're having a freaking baby?!"

If I hadn't been completely out of my mind at the moment I would have realized that Fay probably had no clue what I was talking about, I hoped that with the last frantic question she'd have latched onto the subject. Luckily she was intelligent and figured out what I was talking about,

"Kaiden, is Dean with you?" she asked in a voice that was sure and stable, which was a good thing because I had gone to pieces,

"No, he's not. I'm standing here in this stupid store with really bright lights and the lady that works here thinks I'm freaking nuts!"

"So, you think you're pregnant?" she asked in the same voice

"No!" I yelled and the lady looked at me once more and walked away, "I woke up this morning and decided that there was nothing I would rather do with my time than stand in a drug store and stare at pregnancy tests!"

"Okay Kaiden, you're clearly hysterical so I'm going to call Dean. What's the name of the Pharmacy you're at?" I heard her put her hand over the phone and say to George, "Honey, could you grab my cell phone for me?"

"Fay, do not call Dean. Do you hear me? I don't want him to know about this yet. I just need time to think. I'm about to go back to the motel. I'm sorry I bothered you. I'll talk to you later."

"Kaiden I-"

I didn't hear what she had to say because I had clicked my phone shut.

I pulled like ten different boxes of tests off the shelves and walked to the check out and handed the cashier my credit card.

I sat in the bathroom back at the motel room; sitting on the edge of the bathtub, surrounded by boxes of home pregnancy tests was not exactly my idea of a good time.

Dean had been banging on the door since I'd gotten back to the room, about two hours previous. Fay had called me six times and she told me that she hadn't told Dean about the pregnancy tests but she told him that there was something wrong with me.

"Why won't you just talk to him?" she asked me

I hadn't really known what to say at the time, but I realized why I really and truly was so terrified of being pregnant. Dean didn't want children, I was certain of that. I was so scared that he would leave me on my ass, completely alone.

There was another knock on the door,

"Go away Dean!" I yelled

"It's Sam." The youngest Winchester called through the door as he rattled the doorknob, "Can you let me in?"

I paused for a moment, and then realized that Sam liked kids and he wouldn't leave me all alone with a huge belly and swollen ankles. I opened the door and Sam stepped into the bathroom - taking in all the packages and boxes lying on the ground – and closed the door behind him.

"Hi Sam." I said in a tired voice

"What's going on Kaiden?" he asked as he sat down beside me on the side of the tub.

"Nothing really, oh, other than the fact that twenty different pregnancy tests are telling me that I've won the lottery and I'm going to be a 'mommy.'"

"Twenty?"

"Ten boxes, two tests per box, twenty tests saying Kaiden's having a baby and her boyfriend is going to leave her on her ass."

Sam moved back from me and looked stared at me incredulously,

"Do you really think that Dean would leave you because you're pregnant?"

"He doesn't want kids, that I know for sure. I didn't tell him we needed a condom. I thought we would be fine."

Sam laughed and pulled me into a hug, which I found very, very strange.

"If I tell you something will you promise me not to tell Dean I said anything about it?"

Well this was going differently then I had anticipated. I figured he'd just tell me everything would be okay, pat me on the back, and leave me alone. I nodded my head at his question,

"Dean bought a ring. And he could possibly have a question he feels the need to ask you."

That shocked the shit out of me, and I slid backwards off the edge and right into the tub.

"Holy shit." I said as I lay at the bottom of the tub, laughing.

Sam helped me out of the bath,

"Are you okay," he asked, "besides, you know, freaking out about probably being pregnant?"

"It's not a probably, I don't think that twenty pregnancy tests are incorrect." I decided to change the subject, "So how's your new girlfriend, Keira?"

Sam shook his head,

"She's not my girlfriend. I met her last night, but she's really nice."

I smiled,

"So did you," I raised my eyebrows, "you know."

"Not that it's any of your business, Kaiden. But no, we didn't."

"But you want to."

He smiled,

"We're going to see each other more regularly. So I figured I should thank you. You were right."

"I'm always right." I said as I stood up from the ledge of the bathtub and began walking out from the bathroom.

Dean was sitting on the bed we had been sleeping in earlier, holding a small, red velvet box in his hands. He stood up when he saw me come in,

"Kaiden, are you okay?" he asked, his eyes full of concern

"I'm okay now. But I do have something to tell you."

He nodded, silently telling me to continue,

"I'm pregnant." I said, "I know you don't want children but I couldn't bear the idea of giving up the baby, even though it's only a couple of weeks. And I'm sorry, but if you want me to get rid of it, then this isn't going to work."  
He stepped towards me, taking my hand in his and got down on one knee. My breath caught in my chest even though I knew what he was doing,

"Holy shit." I said for the second time in a short period of time

He laughed,

"Yea that's kind of how I'm feeling too."

"But, uh, don't let that stop you, please continue."

He gave me his thousand watt smile and gazed up at me with something that could only be described as love, in his eyes

"Kaiden, I've known you for forever and a day. And I know that we're both stubborn as hell and even though you're staying with me, it means you're also staying with my brother, which is awkward. But if you could get past all of our issues and differences, then I was wondering if you would take a look in your day planner and see if you'd ever have time to marry me."

"Holy shit!" I said, tears welling in my eyes

"You're going to have to use more sentences that use 'yes' or 'no'. Because you're leaving me hanging and it's freaking me out on a level I didn't believe possible."

"Yes." I whispered, "Yes I want to marry you."

He stood up from where he was kneeling and pulled me into his arms. I knew that even though I was twenty three years old and pregnant with the baby of a demon hunter, just like me, and I had so much emotional baggage I needed a forklift to lift, all of those things noted, I knew it would be all right, because we were too damn stubborn to not have this work. Oh, and that love thing too.  
THE END

A/N: Yes, the end, such a strange thing. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed Trial By Fire, and if you didn't, oh well. There is going to be a sequal...but not for a while because I'm going to be in Arizona and Mexico for a bit... So please be patient and check back in about a month :D  
Thanks!  
RooftopsAndInvitations 


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